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The Hooey King
Friday 11 March 2011
by: Eugene Robinson, Op-Ed
Washington - "There is nothing radical or un-American in holding these hearings," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., claimed Thursday, as he launched his McCarthyite probe of American Muslims. He could not have been more wrong. If King is looking for threats to our freedoms and values, a mirror would be the place to start.
Here's why. Imagine a young man, a Muslim, who changes in troubling ways. His two best friends become concerned, then alarmed, as the young man abandons Western dress, displays a newfound religiosity and begins to echo jihadist rhetoric about the decadence of American society. Both friends suspect that the young man has become radicalized and might even attempt some kind of terrorist attack.
One friend is Muslim, the other Christian. Does the Muslim friend have a greater responsibility than the Christian to contact the authorities? By the logic of King's witch hunt, he does.
The Homeland Security Committee hearings that King has convened are billed as an inquiry into "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community's Response." In other words, King suspects that the Muslim community is somehow complicit. Individuals of one faith are implicated; individuals of another faith are not.
As Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims in Congress, said in his moving testimony, King's premise assigns "collective blame" to American Muslims. "Demanding a community response ... asserts that the entire community bears responsibility," Ellison said.
In his pugnacious opening statement, King noted that his plan to hold these hearings had been criticized by "special interest groups and the media," which he said had gone into "paroxysms of rage and hysteria" at the prospect. "To back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness," he said. In case someone missed the point, King later said it was our duty to "put aside political correctness and define who our enemy truly is."
King asserted that "this committee cannot live in denial." He then went straight there -- into denial -- by paying no heed to the witness best situated to answer the committee's question.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca testified in opposition to King's premise, citing figures demonstrating that radical, extremist acts of crime are committed by non-Muslims as well, and that seven of the last 10 known terrorist plots involving al-Qaeda have been foiled in part by information provided by Muslim Americans. Baca said his officers have good, productive relationships with Muslim leaders and citizens. Law enforcement officials from other jurisdictions where there are large Muslim communities could have given similar testimony, had they been invited.
King is trying to peddle the hooey that moderate Muslims do not speak out against extremism. It took Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to note the irony that among the committee's witnesses were two devout Muslims -- one Syrian-American, the other Somali-American -- who were there to speak out, quite loudly, against extremism.
King, in effect, was demanding to know why he didn't see what was taking place before his eyes. Perhaps he was distracted by the need to maintain constant vigilance for any hint of political correctness.
That's really what King's grandstanding is all about. The purpose of these hearings isn't to gather information. If it were, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security would have been asked to testify. In addition to inviting Minneapolis-based Abdirizak Bihi, the Somali-American whose nephew was recruited by the terrorist organization al-Shabab, King could have brought in police from the Twin Cities to testify about cooperation by the Somali immigrant community.
King's intent is theatrical, not substantive; he's not trying to elicit facts, he's inviting catcalls -- and cheers.
It should not be so, but Islamophobia is a powerful force in American politics. There are those who will applaud King for associating the phrase "American Muslim community" with the phrase "who our enemy truly is."
But decency is a powerful force, too. The hearing's indelible moment came when Ellison broke down in tears. He was telling the story of Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a young Muslim who rushed into the World Trade Center to try to rescue victims just before the towers collapsed. His remains were found in the rubble.
Hamdani was not just a Muslim, Ellison said, fighting to choke out words that no one could dismiss as politically correct. He was "an American who gave everything for his fellow Americans."
Eugene Robinson's e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.
(c) 2011, Washington Post Writers Group
All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license. | <urn:uuid:55eaabd9-750d-4a96-b286-c922155e8852> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.truthout.org/eugene-robinson-the-hooey-king68375 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975397 | 993 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today from both sides of the Snyder v. Phelps case, which will decide whether a father’s right to privacy and peaceable assembly at the funeral of his son outweighs the free speech rights of a religious group that staged a protest near the solemn event.
The plaintiff, Albert Snyder, is claiming damages for the “intentional infliction of emotional distress” by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, founded by Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kan. The plaintiff’s son, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, was killed while on active duty in Iraq.
At the March 2006 funeral of Snyder’s son, the Westboro group disrupted the event with anti-gay signs, some of which read, “Fag Troops,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “God Hates Fags,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” The Phelps sect believes that God is allowing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to be killed as a punishment for liberal attitudes in America toward homosexuals.
“Anyone who goes out of their way to desecrate a military funeral in such a hateful manner has no respect for the sacrifices our warriors have made, and continue to make, in combat,” said Jimmie Foster, national commander of The American Legion. “We support Albert Snyder’s right to a peaceful funeral for his son, and we certainly hope the U.S. Supreme Court rules in his favor.”
The American Legion filed a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Snyder and has raised more than $17,000 in donations to his legal defense fund.
In a hearing that lasted about an hour, Supreme Court justices listened to arguments by attorneys Sean Summers for the plaintiff and Margie Phelps for her father, the defendant. The court directed the lawyers to address three questions:
According to Mark Seavey, an American Legion official who sat in on the hearing, Justice Ruth Ginsburg thought the question was even easier: Whether the First Amendment must tolerate “exploiting this bereaved family.”
The Supreme Court probably won’t make a final determination on the case until next year, according to Seavey. | <urn:uuid:e3def2c8-62a1-4f93-9a78-d28ea5288ab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.legion.org/legislative/91713/snyder-v-phelps-case-arguments-heard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954494 | 475 | 1.820313 | 2 |
In 1994, Lisa Simpson — daughter of Homer, sister of Bart — posed the question that continues to plague law enforcement: “If you’re the police, who will police the police?”
Homer answered, “I dunno; Coast Guard?”
Amidst allegations of deputy-on-inmate abuse at LA County jails, LA County Sheriff Lee Baca’s answer was inexplicably worse than Homer’s: “We police ourselves.”
There’s a basic structural problem here that Baca doesn’t see. Without an external and independent body overseeing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, how can people be sure that it handles deputy misconduct properly? They can’t. They simply have to trust the sheriff.
Of course, Baca can and does point to the Office of Independent Review (OIR), the civilian oversight group that reviews the investigations into the use of force that the Sheriff’s Department is supposed to conduct. But despite its name, the OIR doesn’t conduct an independent review. The quality of its investigation is dependent on the original Sheriff’s Department investigations into use of force.
Those original investigations are flawed at best. A recent OIR report too often found that the Sheriff’s Department investigations are “lackluster, sometimes slanted, and insufficiently thorough.” It also noted that when deputies misrepresent their own actions or those of inmates, they can “get away” with abuse of inmates. Its preliminary review of our jails report suggested that more deputies are abusing inmates and getting away with it.
Because the OIR just reviews the Sheriff’s Department’s investigations, it can’t improve on the original. Garbage in, garbage out.
The OIR didn’t talk to Gordon Grbavac, who was brutally assaulted by deputies and forced to say on camera that he caused his own injuries.
And the OIR never interviewed volunteer jails tutor Scott Budnick, who saw so many disturbing incidents of deputy-on-inmate abuse that he stopped volunteering at Men’s Central Jail. He reported the abuse, but the Sheriff’s Department never interviewed him. Because the Sheriff’s Department never interviewed Mr. Budnick, the OIR likely never even knew he was a witness to abuse.
Mr. Budnick’s case isn’t special — to our knowledge the OIR has never questioned anyone the Sheriff’s Department had omitted from its investigation.
Rather than reassure the public, Baca actually highlighted the lack of accountability. In light of our reportand extensive media coverage of the jails abuses, it’s clear that the jails need drastically improved oversight. Angelenos deserve far better than “We police ourselves.” We deserve to know that someone is assessing Sheriff’s Department policy, training, leadership, supervision. We deserve to have someone police the police. | <urn:uuid:bb780e62-8475-4b3a-a8fd-7d3b1720582e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aclu-sc.org/who-should-police-the-police/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946439 | 616 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.I'm reading Obama's victory speech this morning, and, though I voted against him, I feel uplifted. I get a chill. Just as the writer of those words intended. Rereading them, my critical mind clicks in. A former colony won the right to determine its own destiny...? A colony? There were 13 colonies! Won the right? I read the Declaration of Independence to say that we had the right already, and we were entitled to throw off the power that oppressed us. The next phrase "perfecting our union" evokes the first sentence of the Constitution — "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...."— and ties it to his campaign slogan "forward" and to "you," who voted for him, propelling him forward. I've got to wonder if the idea is to move forward past the lesser perfection of the Constitution, into a system in which individuals merge into one nation, one people, one family. But you can still pursue your own individual dreams. Go ahead! Pursue them! If you can
It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.
I know some of you are thinking: If we can in this supposedly more perfect but actually terrifying system of socialism The One will move us forward into. Here are 2 expressions of that fear that went up last night on Instapundit and that struck me as excessive and over-scared. At 10:41, Sarah Hoyt wrote:
I HAVE QUESTIONS: We’re not a country of land or blood. We’re a country of beliefs. If we’ve lost that, who are we? Who am I? And where do I go?And at 11:00, Glenn Reynolds put up the text of an email from a reader named Zach White:
If Obama is reelected, good hardworking people should give up and go Galt. The tipping point is the 2012 election. Will the makers finally succumb to the takers? It’s pointless to think that if America reelects the most unqualified disastrous president in recent memory, we should stand our ground and continue fighting. it’s a signal that marxist free-lunchism and free birth control for everyone trump economic well-being and prosperity in the minds of the masses. Give up. Go Galt. Protect what few assets you have left, and start to hunker down for the coming storm. America is beyond screwed, well past the fiscal insanity of a number of EU countries. Think of it this way – we sit and watch California destroy itself and wonder who could be so foolish as to remain there and dedicate himself to indentured servitude in a state headed for disaster. Why don’t those fools just leave!! Same for Venezuela. as they descend into chaos and totalitarianism, do they reject Chavez more? The answer is plainly no. The spiral down the drain is irreversible and obvious. The more the government creates misery, the more they create programs to help people cope with the misery they’ve created, and we achieve a perpetual negative feedback loop. My advice is simple – if Obama is reelected, get a lawyer and a financial advisor, cash out as much of your assets as you can, and prepare yourself for a nosedive off a cliff. anything else would be imprudent and irresponsible to yourself and your dependents. Who wants to be a Dagny Taggart dedicating themselves to a life of indentured servitude trying to correct the wrongs of a heavy handed government? i will not be volunteering. I didn’t give up on America, America gave up on me.I read that this morning and pictured the young man in his 30s or early 40s, a man with a wife and children, reading that anything else would be imprudent and irresponsible to yourself and your dependents and actually spending money on a lawyer and a financial advisor, extracting all his cash from his retirement accounts, quickly selling the home they live in, and heading for the hinterlands to hunker down for the nose dive. The wife is distraught, the kids freak out. Dad's gone nuts. No, I'm not nuts, children. I am Galt! And I'm doing the only thing that is not imprudent!
Talk about nosedives. Get a grip, those of you who didn't get what you wanted for Electionmas. It's Obama's Second Term America, and you'll need to make the best of it. I think you've got some better ideas than cashing out and hunkering down. I know I do. | <urn:uuid:20799f96-6f01-4e01-a6ce-1766384aaca1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/its-morning-in-obamas-second-term.html?showComment=1352297481209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967735 | 1,048 | 1.625 | 2 |
The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency brings a temporary sight of relief:
- A McCain victory would have drawn suspicions of fraud, provoking civil unrest.
- A McCain-Palin victory would have prolonged the Bush "Era of Bad Feeling."
- McCain lacked the temperament and intellect to be a competent President, and Sarah Palin is, at this point, not well-informed enough to be President.
- It is good to see a black man win the Presidency with a clear majority of the vote. This, by itself, will improve America's standing in the world. A McCain victory would have prompted dread among our allies and caused our enemies to rejoice.
- It is good to see Democrats actually nominate a candidate who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning, and see this candidate succeed. That Obama carried the day gives him a mandate to withdraw from the quagmire.
And Obama did run an efficient, classy campaign. If he could avoid mis-steps as President they way he did while campaigning, we should be fine.
That said, Obama does raise concerns. Based on his history and record, we do not know what's really up his sleeve:
- Did he associate with left-radicals and black racialists in Chicago just to further his career, or because he agreed with them?
- Did he vote, in 2006, to criminalize flag "desecration" out of personal beliefs and legal convictions, or to cynically advance his own career?
- Did he vote for warrantless spying on American citizens to avoid a "soft on terror" smear, or because he wants to use and abuse this power as President?
- Did he kow-tow to the Israel lobby and threaten Iran to make himself look "tough" for election purposes, or because he really wants to continue needless American intervention in the region?
- Did he support the Bailout of Wall Street because he's clueless and un-interested in economic issues, or because he really is in the pocket of the bankers?
Many people who voted for Obama may make excuses for some or all of these things, and suggest that Obama sometimes had to be pragmatic to get where he is. That may well be true. Then, the question becomes ...
Will Obama govern like a pragmatist or an ideologue?
- Will he focus on punishing "greed," or will he work on ways to encourage enterprise and create jobs?
- Will he insist on greater federal control over health care, or work on ways to actually make health care less expensive and more accessible?
- Will he adopt a realist foreign policy, repairing damaged relations and avoiding war whenever possible, or will he replace neo-conservatism with a "liberal internationalism" that would draft our sons and daughter to die "saving" Darfur or "liberating" Zimbabwe?
- Will he combat budget deficits or insist on new spending regardless of the consequences?
- Will his "cure" for racial injustice be in the way of more affirmative action and hate crimes laws, or greater efforts to reduce prison populations and unemployment?
- Will he maintain the status quo on abortion, or promote and sign the Freedom of Choice Act?
- Does he embrace the heavy-handed Justice Department tactics of Janet Reno and the Bush Attorneys General, or will he restore privacy protections and not interfere with state laws regarding marijuana and assisted suicide?
Judging by the way he ran his campaign, Obama seems to have the potential to be a competent President. If he displays genuine intellectual curiosity on economic and fiscal issues, brings an end to the wars, and refrains from alienating social conservatives very often, he would be on the right track.
But if he starts to believe all the positive press he's getting and develops a Messiah complex to "save" the country through bigger, more intrusive government, look out! | <urn:uuid:f44024e8-7d61-41e7-a10e-4c774ca8f71a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=3101 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951126 | 792 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Thousands of "Tea Party" protesters gathered in Washington Saturday to march to the Capitol Hill to protest high spending, higher taxes and the growth of the federal government.
What's the true state of the debate on President Obama's health care plan? New polls suggest that while opposition is still high, the intensity is subsiding. Yet, an event this weekend recalls the old line from the Marx Brothers: "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?"
Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday on the National Mall in Washington to protest, not just the health care plan, but the explosion in federal spending that began last year with the $700 billion bailout to banks. That was followed by bailouts of insurance giant AIG and the auto industry, then a $787 billion stimulus package. The Obama administration then introduced its own $3.6 trillion budget. Then came a proposal for a $1 trillion health care package.
It might be convenient to just write off the protesters on the Mall as cranks, not to be taken seriously. But the "Tea Party" movement which they represent has been growing. It was a few thousand people randomly spread about the country when first launched back in February. Those numbers grew two months later to more than 300,000 for April 15-themed rallies across the country.
And now, as many as 100,000 or more -- estimates vary wildly -- have come to the nation's historic gathering place for social movements. Maybe it wasn't quite as large as Martin Luther King's civil rights march in 1963 or the Million Man March and Promise Keeper rallies in the mid-90s. But just as those rallies were symbolic of larger movements, so too is this "Tea" march. And getting that many to come to DC on a weekend to protest -- not social action or civil rights, but budgetary and fiscal issues -- is a remarkable achievement.
It would be unwise to dismiss the protesters' fears that the nation remains on a path toward possible bankruptcy and poverty for future generations off Americans. | <urn:uuid:350edb16-c7f8-4411-b507-5e538ec9f3e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Not-Fading-Away.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959456 | 410 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A prime example of that is the so-called Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, which includes a prohibition against teachers and students being "friends" through Facebook or other social networking sites.
The blog includes the following passage:
It is only a small section of the bill, buried neatly toward the end, but in the spirit of protecting children from those evil classroom teachers, Mrs. Cunningham, the same legislator who showed her compassion for children this session by sponsoring a bill that would repeal child labor laws, fosters the notion that the only way a teacher can be a "friend" to a student is through some sort of sick sexual social-network stalking.
It also continued the now honored process among legislators of labeling teachers as perverts whose sole purpose in earning teaching degrees was to gain an invitation to a place where children are assembled.
And now the same political party, which each year gives lip service to keeping big government out of our lives, has an open door to continue the assault on teachers' reputations. | <urn:uuid:f04d59db-e89d-46a4-a914-a6865f5396cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-axis-of-evil-drunk-drivers-sex.html?showComment=1312236724035 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963374 | 206 | 1.664063 | 2 |
President Barack Obama is hoping that the P5+1 talks with Iran can stave off Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb. But, those recently held in Moscow (June 18-19, 2012), with the participation of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and Iran, like previous talks in Istanbul (April 14, 2012) and Baghdad (May 23-24, 2012) have produced little beside “feel good” sentiments among the participants. The Islamic Republic of Iran is poised to develop a nuclear bomb and the means to deliver it with long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. (short and medium range missiles that can hit Israel and Europe are already available to Iran ). While the talks ensue, the centrifuges spin and give Iran the time they need to bring them to the point of no return.
The world powers, while seemingly standing by the demands for Iran to halt uranium enrichment before it reaches the 20% level needed to make an atomic bomb, have been unwilling to make their demand a reality with a determined threat of military action. Russia and China will not permit the military option. The real question, however, is why the U.S. and its Western allies have not either.
The reluctance of President Obama to consider military action against the Iranian regime is reminiscent of President Jimmy Carter’s inaction when faced with the revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran invading the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and taking 52 American diplomats hostage; an action which constituted an act of war against the U.S. The invasion, on November 4, 1979, was executed with the blessings of the Ayatollah Khomeini – the then new leader of Iran.
Ahmed Khomeini, the Ayatollah’s son, charged with serving as a liaison between the regime and the “students” occupying the embassy would later reveal in his writings that his father expected “thunder and lightening” from Washington – a decisive military operation that would free the hostages and punish the Iranian regime’s terrorist action. Instead, the Carter White House displayed weakness with its half-hearted statements, among which included a plea to release the hostages on “humanitarian grounds.” President Carter showed no interest or intent in using military action.
Khomeini recognized Carter’s weakness and mocked his administration as acting “like a headless chicken.” Moreover, Carter wrote a personal letter to Khomeini in longhand pleading with an appeal from “one believer to a man of God.” Khomeini’s reaction was “we shall cut off America’s hands.”
Obama’s June 4, 2009, Cairo speech, pleaded with the Muslim world and Iran in a similar manner. “In Ankara, I made clear that America is not, and never will be at war with Islam…Rather than remain trapped in the past, I’ve made it clear to Iran’s leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build. I recognize it will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude, and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect.”
Obama continued, “I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons. And that’s why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation, including Iran, should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I’m hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.”
Pages: 1 2 | <urn:uuid:f8769290-09f3-4133-a4cd-0928f09fd26c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/obama-like-carter-will-not-act-against-iran/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958697 | 846 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Thoughts from a reflective educator.
My friend, whom I met when I worked in an international school in Bangkok, worked in a bilingual school in Thailand before the school where I met him. He said it was an interesting job, but he was glad to be working at a school with a different emphasis.
The school he worked at had pretty good test results, some of the best in the country. Students would consistently score well on the state standardized tests held all over Thailand. So my friend went to observe the best teacher in the school, as measured by how well her kids did on the standardized tests.
I just read this article from 2007, originally posted in the Boston Globe, but available here online. The point of the article is that participation in an Arts class helps students learn skills which may not be present elsewhere in their school as a result of a narrowing focus of schools on standardized testing.
This afternoon I had a great conversation with David Miles and Fred Mindlin. David works as an Academic Coordinator in a private school in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Fred works as an educational consultant for the Central California Writing Project.
Both of them are extremely articulate and intelligent people who have a lot to say about education. I've known David for about 5 years now ever since we worked together in London, and I met Fred for the first time this afternoon.
I asked David through Skype, and I invited Fred through Twitter, and we all met in a Skype group chat. We decided to continue the conversation from #edchat and talk about educational reform.
This idea for a Conversation With Educators is from the podcast @betchaboy does, The Virtual Staffroom and is something I hope more teachers do. Talking with educators from around the world about what we do is a terrific experience. I hope to chat with more of you next week.
For now you can listen to this podcast episode below, or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes here. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license so please feel free to remix it and share it, so long as you give proper attribution to the original work.
For those of you who are curious about the production of this podcast, it was recorded using a program called Skype Call Recorder on Windows, and slightly edited using Audacity.
Last night @RobinThailand invited me to join a Virtual Staffroom podcast. So I fired up Skype and accepted an invite from someone I didn't really know before, @betchaboy. I was following him but I don't think we had chatted much before last night.
Tonight I was at a birthday party for a young boy; I was invited as a result of my son being about the same age as the birthday boy. While we were dolling out the ice cream and cake for the 5 boys at the party, I was struck by the realization that there was a relationship between their choices for ice cream and cake, and how we need to look at education.
Here's what each boy wanted for this ice cream and cake.
A common problem that is discussed on Twitter between educators is that they don't have full access to the Internet due to a filter installed either at their school or at the district level in their area. There are a number of arguments for and against the existence of these filters, summarized in the table below.
Today's #edchat on Twitter was about how we can break free of the echo chamber that is #edchat. We all have great ideas, but how can we turn those great ideas into action? Our objective is not to stop our great conversations but to also move beyond our conversations into concrete action.
Update (2011): This absolutely as relevant for the 2011 conference as it was for last year's conference.
First, I want to preface what follows with the stipulation that although I had the complaints listed below, I really, really enjoyed attending ISTE and will attend again. I'd just like the conference to be more environmentally conscious.
The ISTE conference is over, and I'm finally able to unwind and get a chance to reflect on the experience. The conference was awesome for many reasons, but there was a reoccurring theme that happened during the conference, which to me was the most important part of the conference. | <urn:uuid:82b5259f-be2c-4588-8236-bdd597a44765> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://davidwees.com/blog?page=58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982371 | 874 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Lincoln Room
The Columbus Dispatch - December 20, 2012 6:12 PM
Gov. John Kasich not only named a new Supreme Court justice on Thursday -- he also renamed a Statehouse room.
The governor's ceremonial office inside the Statehouse -- where Kasich announced his appointment of Judith L. French to the Ohio Supreme Court -- is now the "Lincoln Room." In February of 1861, Abraham Lincoln learned via telegraph that Congress had confirmed his election as president while he was in that particular room visiting Gov. William Dennison.
Kasich often tells versions of the Lincoln-Dennison story when he brings visitors into the ceremonial office. When Ohio State's football team visited the Statehouse earlier this month,Kasich told the players that Lincoln sat at the wooden desk in the center of the room, prompting receiver Corey “Philly” Brown to run up and touch the desk twice. | <urn:uuid:3935bdbb-d469-4d9d-b08d-e46ce55d486a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dispatchpolitics.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-daily-briefing/2012/12/12-20-12-lincoln-room.html?year=2012&month=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957798 | 186 | 1.835938 | 2 |
[PLUG] Mandriva And Mandriva...
laghatea at gmail.com
Sun Aug 24 09:01:42 PDT 2008
On Sun, 2008-08-24 at 20:51 +0530, Arun Khan wrote:
> On Sunday 24 Aug 2008, म.हा.सा.ग.र wrote:
> When I inserted his USB pen drive on my Ubuntu
> 8.04.1 I noticed a lot of <dir>.exe files created on my hard disk.
> Obviously, the pen drive was infected but worse yet the virus was able
> to create the files on my system. Luckily the damage was contained
> since the .exe files could not run on my system. I disabled "auto run"
> in Nautilus. Ease of use has it's down side.
This is funny!! I have till date (in the last 10 years) never seen a
virus file replicating on Linux!! Are you sure it came from the
pen-drive and not were already present??
Because, by logic and theory, the executable on the pen-drive CANNOT
execute on Linux. A windows executable CANNOT run on Linux.
There is something fishy here!
More information about the plug-mail | <urn:uuid:34ee125b-27d8-41fd-afcb-a1208a21f1eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plug.org.in/pipermail/plug-mail/2008-August/004831.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941679 | 276 | 1.5 | 2 |
The two officers and five other U.S. soldiers were inside a soft-skinned, tan-colored tent that served as a temporary "tactical command post" on an Afghan army base known as Old Corps Headquarters. Their task was to coordinate a security plan for the three-day peace conference at nearby Mandigak Palace. Their body armor was stacked in one corner, their weapons in another.
Their partners that day included liaison officers from Afghan security services, including the national intelligence agency and the army. The four liaisons excused themselves for the night and left the compound shortly before the attack. They had been working inside the tent and would have been in the line of fire had they stayed.
The Army investigator called this circumstance "worth noting," but he established no proof of complicity by the Afghan security officers.
An Afghan investigation concluded that only one soldier, a sergeant identified as Enayut (Afghans often use just one name) fired on the Americans, according to a summary of the probe, while the U.S. Army concluded there were two shooters.
Several U.S. soldiers recalled noticing two, possibly three, Afghans enter the compound about 9 p.m. They stood out because they were armed with one rocket-propelled grenade and at least one M16 rifle. At least one was wearing an Afghan army uniform, the report said. No one questioned them, since there was no screening requirement in place.
"They just walked in like they owned the place," a U.S. sentry at the compound's barricaded entrance told investigators afterward. Like others, his name was blacked out of the report.
In the moments that followed, hints of trouble were obscured by the appearance of normalcy.
At 9:02 p.m., just a few minutes after taking up his guard position at the front entrance of the command post tent, Spc. Paul A. LeVan was told he was being repositioned to a guard tower overlooking the compound. He was not replaced at the tent. There was no explanation as to why.
LeVan's sergeant led him to the empty guard tower, where, as a standard precaution, they discussed the locations of friendly forces in LeVan's line of fire. He was armed with an M249 light machine gun.
Soon, two of the Afghans who had entered the compound at 9 p.m. joined them in the tower. One was in military garb and, rather curiously, armed with a grenade launcher and one grenade. The other was unarmed and spoke English. LeVan's sergeant then left the tower and, upon entering the command tent, mentioned the grenade launcher to those inside, including an enlisted soldier who recalled later that the weapon seemed "out of the ordinary."
"But since (Afghan soldiers) were allowed to carry RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), we did not give it much thought," the enlisted soldier, whose name was blacked out of the report, told investigators.
Another unidentified soldier said in the report that he, too, noticed the RPG and thought it "seemed reckless" to permit it inside the compound.
In his final report, the Army investigator found it curious that neither LeVan nor his sergeant challenged or questioned the two Afghans about "why a tower guard would have an RPG and no rifle."
LeVan, 21 at the time and a member of the 209th Military Police Company, said he assumed the Afghans were a properly assigned guard and his interpreter, although he noticed that the armed Afghan was avoiding eye contact and closely tracking movements inside the compound. LeVan shook hands with both men, but the veneer of friendliness soon vanished.
"I had a gut feeling that something was out of place," he told the AP in a telephone interview. He was the only American to witness the attack from start to finish.
Suddenly and without explanation the Afghans descended from the tower.
"I got nervous, so I kept a very close eye on the two men," LeVan told an Army investigator two days later.
LeVan said he watched through his night vision goggles as the Afghan armed his grenade launcher and took aim at several Army medics playing cards on cots they had set up at the rear of their armored ambulance. A medic recalled spotting the gunman pointing the RPG at them from point blank range. "I stood up and shouted, 'Hey! What the f--- are you doing?'" she told investigators.
His rocket missed the soldiers and slammed into a nearby concrete barrier. Shrapnel wounded the medic in her stomach and back. A piece of shrapnel also penetrated the nearby command tent, wounding the U.S. sergeant who had just left LeVan in the guard tower.
By several accounts, bullets began flying about five seconds after the grenade exploded. | <urn:uuid:5463a1b4-b9ca-4232-a079-ec07673f3d00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-an-insider-attack-trust-cost-2-lives-including-sw-mich-soldier-20121205,0,1205323.story?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986954 | 979 | 1.5 | 2 |
Last week the BLS announced that 873,000 jobs had been created, dropping unemployment to 7.8% ... or that maybe it had only created 114,000 jobs which would actually increase unemployment. The Obama and Romney camps went into overdrive spinning the numbers into all manner of interpretations - those which suited their purposes, of course. Pro-Romney Jack Welch was apoplectic ... tweeting conspiracy theories and criminal accusations. Nobel Prize winning Obama shill Paul Krugman, while acknowledging the fact that the job creation numbers are shaky, asserts that anyone who does not see them on the high side is "deranged".
Given that the source of the numbers is the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and in light of the fun we had six years ago blowing up the BLS productivity numbers - seems they don't know the difference between offshore outsourcing and productivity - so they just call it all productivity - it seemed worth a look at these curious numbers.
The monthly unemployment figure - the one that said 873,000 jobs had been created and unemployment dropped to 7.8% - the one Krugman thinks one must be deranged to challenge a la Welch - is based on the results of phone calls to one half of one percent of American households. (They call about 60,000 homes out of about 120 million - they extrapolate the answers they get to the other 99.5%) When they get someone to answer they ask if the folks over the age of 16 who live there are working. It is pretty much a straight up 'yes' or 'no' deal - working 50 hours a week as a machinist counts the same as spending 4 hours a week cutting the neighbor's grass. In fact, sitting at home sick, because the weather is bad, on strike, for personal reasons or even because you were laid off if you think you might get recalled counts as working. The bar is pretty low to count as being employed. A kid who lives on a farm with a father who makes him do chores counts as working. The other interesting point is that there is no relationship whatsoever between the official monthly unemployment number and the number of folks collecting unemployment compensation.
In the other corner we have Jack Welch - Jack who doesn't need to actually know anything about the people working in an organization to know that 10% of them (based on numerical evaluations) are marginal workers who ought to go - not 9%, not 11% but exactly 10%. Welch really, really believes in numbers and his over-the -top reaction to suspect numbers from the BLS says a lot about what it must have been like working for him at GE. In his defense, given GE's reputation for book cooking under his reign he is probably pretty well qualified to spot fiction in the figures,and as one well familiar with Chicago and its politics, I can't say number juggling from Chicago folks is a wholly unreasonable possibility. Just the same, criminalizing bad data from the BLS is more likely criminalizing incompetence and I don't think Jack really wants to go there.
At any rate, the low number - 114,000 new jobs - is the result of a survey of businesses, non-profits and government agencies. They basically send them a form asking how many folks are working and hope they send them back in. Surprisingly most of the organizations do send them back, but they do it in their own sweet time. As a result, this number typically gets revised each month for a couple of months until they 'finalize' it. According to the BLS, the error rate in this number is such that the real number has a 90% probability of being somewhere between 14,000 new jobs and 214,000 new jobs. The basis for this figure is pretty much the answer to the question, 'How many people did you give some money to?' Again, no difference between paying someone to work 4 hours a week or 50 - a job is a job. They acknowledge that, if you have two part time jobs, you count as two people working in this survey, while you would only count as one in the household survey. Another minor issue - if a business goes belly up, obviously there is no one there to send in the form so jobs lost to the tens of thousands of businesses that have failed recently are missed for the most part; and new businesses have better things to do than ring up the BLS and ask to be on the mailing list so they pretty much fall through the cracks, as well.
To sum up what the BLS told us last week, unemployment might have gone down, or it might have gone up, there is about a 90% probability the number of jobs created was somewhere between 14,000 and 873,000, but the low end of that might chage in a couple of months, and there is a one in ten chance it was something different all together, and whatever the number was it might be people working full time but it might be a bunch kids working part time.
And from this profound analysis we will elect a President, billions of dollars will change hands on stock markets, lionized economists and business leaders will reap headlines and the course of the greatest economy in the world will be charted.Original: http://www.idatix.com/manufacturing-leadership/charting-the-course-based-on-swags-and-ballpark-figures/ | <urn:uuid:efedae8d-9812-4d97-96c5-694207e0d217> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2012/10/charting-the-course-based-on-swags-and-ballpark-figures.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97618 | 1,092 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Academic Learning Centers
Students entering Kent State University come from a wide variety of educational and lifestyle traditions. Students include those who are recent high school graduates continuing their education without interruption, those who have been working for a while and still others who are returning after an absence. Regardless of when a person decides to begin a college education, each student needs basic academic skills to succeed at the university.
Kent State University recognizes that some students may need to improve their skills in certain subjects during their first semester or first year in order to be most successful in college. In addition, a variety of academic support connections are available to students as they progress through each semester of college.
At Kent State University we have many services that are available to you and they are located within the Academic Learning Centers.
At the East Liverpool Campus contact Susan Weaver, 330-382-7432 or [email protected]
At the Salem Campus contact Wendy Pfrenger, 330-337-4233 or [email protected] | <urn:uuid:defa8043-a976-457f-9d00-b2f635e465b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salem.kent.edu/academics/resources/academic-center.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963945 | 210 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Are Your Big Dreams as Big as Your God?
By Wayne Stiles
Life gets fueled on dreams. Without big dreams or a purpose, we wither and die.
As Christians, we have more to do than get up, work hard, and come home for a few hours of television . . . only to rise and begin again.
If that’s all we do, we will wake up at age 65 and realize life has amounted to a stack of paychecks and a few laughs.
God wants more for us than that.
Where Big Dreams Come From
The Apostle Paul had lived about 50 years when he penned his letter to the Christians living in Rome.
With three missionary journeys under his belt, six books of Scripture to his credit, and thousands of people impassioned for God, Paul held quite a portfolio in his hands.
If Paul’s career had stopped right there, no one would have protested; everyone would have stood up and applauded. Many would see age 50 as about time to start coasting and counting the years until retirement.
But not Paul.
Paul had big dreams. He continued to imagine
how he could still do more for Christ. He wanted to go to Spain, the western limit of the Roman Empire. This represented bold and big dreams—audacious some might say!
But Paul had a big God. So Paul planned for Spain (oh, and he also wrote seven more New Testament letters).
“There is an important dimension to hanging tough that you dare not miss. It is the thing that keeps you going. I call it a dream.”—Charles R. Swindoll
God’s Dream and Ours
Christ’s Great Commission blesses us with an incredible purpose: “Make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). Beyond making money, we need to purpose to make disciples—in our homes, in our churches and in our world.
In whatever ways you do that, those are your big dreams.
- So, what’s your “Spain”—what’s your passion?
- Do you have a purpose bigger than yourself?
- Is that purpose as big as your God?
If your big dreams are for God’s glory, you cannot fail.
Question: What big dreams do you live for? Please leave a comment.
Adapted from Wayne Stiles, Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey Through the Lands of the Bible (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2006), p. 116. Used by permission. | <urn:uuid:40cc9eea-52e5-4ef3-abfc-5468218659d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ptl2010.com/2012/06/27/are-your-big-dreams-as-big-as-your-god/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962428 | 539 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Dr. Ted Epperly, a family physician and CEO of the Family Medical Residency in Boise, Idaho, agree.
"There's a strong possibility that physicians will stop taking new Medicare patients, and this is especially true for [specialists,]" said Epperly. Given that about 10,000 people become eligible for Medicare every day, Epperly fears that this could create a dangerous situation.
"We already have a shortage of primary care physicians in the United States," he said. "At a time when we need more doctors, and more access to them, we can't afford to create a situation where doctors are limiting the type of patient they want to see because of payment cuts." | <urn:uuid:2ee0b280-0b1d-4b2f-a2b6-4c5d7e21bab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitv.com/news/money/Medicare-doctors-face-29-pay-cut-in-New-Year/-/8905154/17959416/-/item/1/-/159h8vtz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96771 | 143 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday awarded ten "unsung heroes" of Taiwan's devleopment, saying they have made significant contributions to the realms of arts, music, sports, social work and technology, both locally and worldwide.
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was invited to present the awards and lauded the recipients for their accomplishments.
"The ten recipients are all under the age of 40, and perhaps were still infants when the Kaohsiung Incident took place. All recipients are elites of the Kaohsiung Incident era," Lu said yesterday.
Lu also encouraged the recipients to combine tradition and innovation, as well as to learn to work toward goals that are "both local and global."
The recipients were Lee Ching-chun (
Many of the award recipients had nominated themselves, while some were surprised by their nominations.
Wang, now a senior at Hualien Physical Education High School, says he once planned to give up archery because of the tough and tedious training.
"But I became determined to continue after thinking that I have been in this sport for so many years. I must redouble my efforts because my dream of winning a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has yet to come true," he said.
The panel of judges for this selection included 10 university presidents, including Cheng Jei-cheng ( | <urn:uuid:72d84d8a-d6e1-41f5-bb94-b6d385f5d8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/01/18/2003219883 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988024 | 288 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
In 1816, not all English ladies were leading a genteel, Austen-esque life in the country. At least one of them was sailingwith her infant daughter to Africa to meet her husband. Sarah Wallis Bowdich (1791-1856) was the only woman, let alone the only lady, on board a small merchant ship full of desperate men. Here's Sarah's own telling of what happened one evening, from her 1835 book Stories of Strange Lands, & Fragments from the Notes of a Traveller:
The surgeon whispered to me his apprehensions that all was not well, and that our people...were irritated and annoyed, and in a most discontented state. The first mate was in command of the vessel; and, though he was an admirable sailor, and a most obliging and excellent person, was very impetuous. The dinner was sent to table very ill-dressed, and the cook was summoned aft to receive a reprimand. He became impertinent, and the mate, seizing a butter-boat, threw it at his head....A general scuffle ensued, and the second mate, running to the chest of arms, loaded a brace of pistols, and stood in the door-way of the cabin, swearing to two men who came aft, that he would blow their brains out if they ventured a step further. I expostulated with him, but he only replied, "You do not know the danger, Ma'am; the men are in a state of mutiny, and if they seize on the small-arms, we may all be murdered." My child happened to be on deck; and, at the word murdered, I crept under the second mate's arm after her. She was perfectly safe, with Antonio [another sailor] beside her, as guard. My fellow-passenger [a convicted slaver!] was on the larboard side, striving by fair words to quell the tumult; but the first mate was nearly overpowered at the opposite gangway. In striving to reach my child, I became mixed up with their party; and, without knowing it, was close by the mate when when the cook made a plunge at him with the large knife with which he cut the meat. To seize the cook's arm, to snatch the knife out of his hand, and throw it into the sea, was an affair of impulse, not reflection; however, it probably saved the mate, for the knife had already cut through his waistcoat. This action, and my presence, seemed to produce a momentary pause, and gave time to those who were well-disposed to rally round their master. The cook was put in irons, and...went away muttering curses and threats; and I had no inclination to eat the offering with which he had tried to propitiate me....I accordingly threw it into the sea, and retired to the cabin, to prevent further identification with this painful concern.
But wait! This is only one tiny slice of this lady's amazing and accomplished life. More, much more, to follow on Thursday....
Above: Loaded pistols were served out to all the sure men by N.C. Wyeth, 1911, illustration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Collection of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth. | <urn:uuid:b70541ba-e6ba-4806-a788-7a0184e55322> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2010/08/intrepid-women-sarah-bowdich-quells.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986603 | 687 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Comparing drugs to alcohol is an unfair comparison. I hear this all the time. For one, alcohol has a long history so we already know the consequences. We have no idea what would happen were drugs legalized.
Neither will crime decrease if drugs are legalized. Therefore it isn't a war on people. Criminals will find new ways to make money like selling drugs to children who will not be able to purchase them legally. The notion that criminals will become law-abiding citizens because drugs are legalized is a very optimistic assessment. If money were free would crime end? It would actually increase crime. Increasing welfare has not decreased crime but rather created a new dependent class which is exactly what would happen if drugs were legalized. | <urn:uuid:8f30d2dc-ff30-40b5-9b2a-7c1dbc21a4df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/social/usercommentprint/5238593 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985991 | 144 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Our Time Together
Kusen by Robert Livingston Roshi
The time we have together as a sangha is very short. We don't know what will happen in the future. Our future may not even exist. But our future can exist here and now. The time we spend practicing together - zazen, samu, ceremony, eating, sesshin, sleeping, all our lives - will have a deep influence.
I hope each and every one of you realizes this: our practice here, now will effect and determine our future. The karma, the actions that we take here and now, during this period of our lives have a very deep, determining effect on our future.
This applies to all of us. You must take advantage, put your total energy, determination, concentration into your life here and now.
It's very hard for people (especially young people) to understand the great importance and deep effect that our actions in our practice at the temple, with the sangha, will have throughout our lives. Some people will remain in the sangha a long time, some people will be here not so long. Lives change, sometimes things happen.
We don't know how long we're going to exist. In the dojo's first five years, we lost three young people, all in their twenties. They thought they had long lives ahead of them. Nothing is sure: mujo, change.
But if we concentrate, apply ourselves, with determination, energy; if we make our practice with the sangha, in the dojo, the temple, our highest priority; then it won't matter how long we're here on earth, how long we're here with the sangha. We will be able to create new karma, new life, new body-mind, which will influence and determine all the rest of our lives. And not only our lives, but the lives of all those around us. And not only people, but all existences.
The effect, merit of zazen is infinite. We cannot imagine how great an effect our determined, concentrated practice has.
So don't dream your life away, fritter it away in childish idle pastimes. Make use of this time, change your life. You can have a great internal revolution which will radiate in an unlimited manner.
After all these years I can understand. When I first started, I didn't truly understand, I didn't always put my total energy in. Sometimes I let the distractions of the world (personal distractions, emotional distractions) influence, take me away. Fortunately, I was able to always return quickly, change my life, change my habits, change my whole life-style in order to help me to follow the Way.
I didn't plan to be an Abbot of a temple, plan to be a Zen Master. My mind was quite mushotoku. This was not my goal, object or aim. It just happened. It's not necessary to have any goal in mind, object. Just concentrate on the practice here and now. Everything will unfold naturally, unconsciously, automatically.
When we follow the cosmic order (instead of our own ideas, our own ego, our own ambition) when we follow the cosmic order with mushotoku mind, everything unfolds the way it should, in the best of all possible ways. Put aside worldly ambitions. Don't have a particular or fixed idea of what your future life should be.
People work hard, very hard, to try to be this, that or the other; to gain, obtain money, or happiness, or comfort, pleasure. What they get is always quite different. Then they feel deceived. Even though they may actually become famous, or very wealthy, they are still deceived. We substitute one pain or problem for another pain or problem. We go on and on like that.
If we concentrate on our practice (zazen, samu, in our work, in our school, whatever our job is, whatever our occupation is, our life here and now), there is no need for any ambition or goal or object. Everything will come to us naturally. We will follow the cosmic order, find true happiness, deep within. And our life will truly be fulfilled.
Please remember this. This is the most important thing you can ever learn, ever experience throughout your entire life: this practice, sangha, this time of your life, here and now.
So here and now, concentrate on posture, concentrate on exhalation. Let go of your thoughts, let them pass. Let the mind quiet, let the body-mind drop off, unconsciously, naturally. Here and now.
All Content ©1982-2009 American Zen Association or respective owners|
Comments to [email protected] | <urn:uuid:882d2001-baad-4b8c-a21e-0fbf38c9a6ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nozt.org/teachings/rlourtime.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942007 | 976 | 1.523438 | 2 |
- Featured Stories
- Douglas County
- City of Ava
- General Interest
Preventing Child Abuse
On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Mental Health, Seniors and Families Committee conducted a hearing on Senate Bill 758, which would change the laws regarding hotline calls and investigations of child abuse and neglect to the Children’s Division of the Department of Social Services.
During the hearing, we heard testimony from Debra Davis, who called the child abuse hotline multiple times in 2005 to report her grandson, Gavin, was being abused by his mother’s boyfriend. A caseworker was sent to the home where Gavin was staying, but there was no one present. The caseworker left a business card and later returned to investigate the abuse allegations. After the second visit, it was determined there was no evidence of abuse.
Gavin was killed shortly thereafter. The mother’s ex-boyfriend was convicted in his death.
Debra talked about how the business card alerted the boyfriend that he was being investigated for abuse and gave him time to cover up evidence of the abuse and concoct a plausible story for Gavin’s injuries. She also stressed how multiple calls to the child abuse hotline did not speed up the process, despite those calls indicating Gavin was in probable danger.
This was a tragic incident, all the worse because Gavin’s grandmother made every effort to prevent it from happening. It also highlights the need for certain improvements in the process for investigating and dealing with child abuse allegations.
Senate Bill 758, which I’m sponsoring, enacts five critical changes to the handling of hotline abuse calls by the Children’s Division. First, in any case where a child is seriously injured or dies, the hotline worker or case workers who handled the case will receive a preliminary evaluation by the division to determine if the worker is still able to competently handle his or her duties.
Police officers who are involved with the death of a suspect are placed on administrative leave; the state should do something similar for hotline and case workers. We need to determine what level of counseling or care they might need, and ensure they’re still able to perform their job after handling such a case.
The legislation also requires the Children’s Division to review cases where repeated calls involving the same child occur within a 72-hour time period to determine if the calls meet the criteria to initiate a child abuse and neglect report. A single call can start the process of judging whether or not a child is being abused and if intervention is needed. But multiple calls within a short amount of time can give hotline workers a clearer picture, and that should warrant a faster response. And, this bill requires hotline workers to advise individuals to call 911 when a child may be in immediate danger. There is a certain bureaucratic process the Children’s Division has to follow, and that can take time. If a child is in immediate danger, people need to be aware that contacting 911 is an option.
The legislation also prohibits case workers responding to a hotline call from leaving a business card, pamphlet or other identifying information if there is no person present at the time of the home visit and alleged abused reside at the home, and if the alleged abuser is present during the visit, the caseworker is required to provide written material informing him or her of his or her rights regarding the visit.
To be clear, this bill is not about blaming or condemning the actions of the Children’s Division. They followed the guidelines set out by law. However, no system is perfect. If there are areas that require improvement, those issues need to be addressed. We cannot be complacent, especially when it comes to protecting children from abuse. And the Children’s Division, to its credit, has already enacted many of the changes in this bill, but it’s important to put these measures in statute.
These are difficult cases. They involve tough choices, and the right answer isn’t always clear. But we must do all we can to stop child abuse, and that’s the goal of this bill. Timothy and Debra Davis, Gavin’s grandparents, have worked tirelessly to see these changes enacted, and I offer my heartfelt appreciation for their dedication and perseverance in pursuing this issue. I hope we can get this bill passed.
If you have any questions or comments about this or any other matter regarding your state government, please feel free to contact me at (573) 751-1503; you are also welcome to e-mail me at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:4d38a316-bfaa-4359-a617-aadcd8a768c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://douglascountyherald.com/2012/04/06/wasson-report-4-5-12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964052 | 946 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Iran's military chief says the deployment of NATO Patriot missiles on the Turkey-Syria border could lead to a "world war" that engulfs Europe.
Patriot missile batteries, German Air Force
On December 15, the state-controlled Iranian Students' News Agency quoted armed forces chief General Hassan Firouzabadi as saying each Patriot missile is "a black mark on the world map" that is "meant to cause a world war."
Turkey asked NATO in November to deploy the Patriot defense system, which is designed to shoot down aircraft or missiles.
The request came after airspace violations by Syrian warplanes and Syrian artillery fire spilling into Turkish territory.
On December 14, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the deployment in Turkey of two Patriot missile batteries along with 400 troops to operate them, following similar steps by Germany and the Netherlands.
Based on reporting by Reuters and ISNA
Copyright (c) 2012 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
... Payvand News - 12/15/12 ... -- | <urn:uuid:d461b5d1-1e65-4e40-93fb-04dacf07ed1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.payvand.com/news/12/dec/1131.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931 | 245 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Processed by Adam Todd in October 2006 under the supervision of Deirdre A. Scaggs, University Archivist.; machine-readable finding aid created by Eric Weig
Austin Lilly papers and photographs
University of Kentucky Libraries, Special Collections
This collection is arranged chronologically in three series:
Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
1988UA022: [identification of item], Austin Lilly papers and photographs, University of Kentucky Archives.
0.25 cubic feet (2 boxes)
Photographs and YWCA materials related to Ms. Lilly's time as a student at the University of Kentucky, circa 1919. Articles, correspondence, and photographs related to the Donovan Scholars Program and Ms. Austin Lilly's retirement from the program in 1983.
Ms. Austin Lilly graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1919 with a B.S. in Home Economics. During her time at UK, she was involved in a number of clubs and extracurricular activities including the YWCA, Alpha Xi Delta, and the Home Economics Club. After graduation, Lilly went on to teach domestic science at Lexington Junior High School until 1966. While she was a teacher, she took college courses in art. In the late 1950s she studied at the University of Arizona, the University of California, Transylvania, and the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. She took courses for a number of years as a Donovan Scholar until she became an instructor in the program in 1969. Ms. Austin Lilly served as a painting and art appreciation instructor in the Donovan Program for 14 years. In 1983, she retired from the program.
In 1962 the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees established the Council on Aging. The brainchild of former UK President Herman Donovan, the Council was intended to create educational programs for senior citizens and perform research related to aging. In 1964, upon the Board of Trustees approval, the Herman L. Donovan Fellowship for Senior Citizens was established. Donovan Scholars had their tuition waived and were allowed to enroll in any courses on Lexington's campus as well as at community colleges. The only requirement was to be at least 65 years old. The program gained national exposure in 1966 when it was covered in TIME magazine.
In time the program expanded to offer special opportunities in the arts, open to a slightly wider age range. This included writing workshops, music lessons, and visual arts courses. These offerings were not for credit, but were instead aimed at self-enrichment. The Donovan Program is still in operation today.
The Austin Lilly papers and photographs contain materials related to Ms. Lilly's time as a student at the University of Kentucky, circa 1919. This includes photographs of student life and items pertaining to the YWCA. It also contains articles, correspondence, and photographs related to the Donovan Scholars Program and Ms. Austin Lilly's retirement from the program in 1983.
The Student Materials series contains notes, correspondence, various other written materials, and photographs. A portion of this series is composed of records and meeting minutes from the Student Young Women's Christian Association of UK during the years of 19161919. The series also includes a number of photographs featuring different events and individuals from Ms. Lilly's time as a student at UK including Homecoming activities, professors, and members of the Home Economics department. These photographs were removed from a scrapbook for preservation purposes. Descriptions of these photographs that appear in quotation marks are taken from inscriptions on the photos. Also of note in this series is Austin Lilly's Life Certificate from UK's College of Education which recognizes her work in the college and certifies her to teach in Kentucky public schools (Folder 2).
The Donovan Scholars Program series contains articles, exhibit programs, and course outlines related to the Program. Of particular interest is an article from a 1979 issue of The NYSATA Bulletin (The Official Journal of the New York State Art Teachers Association) which praises the Donovan Program for its excellence in art education for senior citizens.
The Retirement Materials series contains items related to Austin Lilly's retirement celebration on June 7, 1983. This includes clippings, a guestbook, and congratulatory letters. Of particular interest are photocopies of letters from Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler, UK President Otis A. Singletary, and Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. It also includes seventeen photographs documenting Austin Lilly's retirement celebration. Most of the photographs are labeled. | <urn:uuid:80c549e8-26c9-4914-a600-3867f8504a5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7sbc3svh6z_1_4/guide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957933 | 895 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- Ener-G-Force previews future of G-Class
- Hydrogen powered with 500 mile range
- Unique styling with big tires, fenders
Outside, the Ener-G-Force uses many G-Class style traits. But they all have a futuristic twist, much like the concept SUV itself. One example is the concept's fender-mounted front turn signals--a signature G-Class item. In the Ener-G-Force, they have a new shape and a green glow. The G-Class's off-center tire cover is also kept, but it houses a pull-out tool box in the concept.
While many features are retained from the G-Class, others are new. A new roof rack is actually a high-tech gadget. It's designed to collect water that the Ener-G-Force will store in tanks. The water is transferred to a hydro-tech converter, which powers the SUV's hydrogen fuel cells.
The hydrogen fuel cell is another new item in the concept. While the G-Class uses a gas-powered V8, Mercedes says the Ener-G-Force looks forward to 2025. By then, big V8s may be in the past. The concept's hydrogen fuel cell makes energy that's stored under the SUV's side skirts. That energy is transferred to four wheel hub motors, which can propel the Ener-G-Force up to 500 miles before it needs more hydrogen.
But while its green powertrain is exciting, the Ener-G-Force's wild styling is its main draw. Huge fenders, glowing side markers and knobby tires stand out. The concept also features headlights in the shape of a "G," reflecting its name.
"The Ener-G-Force is the vision of an off-roader that, while reflecting tomorrow's adventures, also invokes the genes of the Mercedes-Benz off-road icon, the G-Class," said Gorden Wagner, Mercedes' director of design. "Modern and cool, it could also be a clue about a new beginning for the off-road design idiom of Mercedes-Benz."
We'll know more about the Mercedes Ener-G-Force Concept when we see it later this month at the LA Auto Show.
What it means to you: Although it won't see production, the Ener-G-Force proves Mercedes is thinking about the future of its G-Class icon. | <urn:uuid:d0fc334d-c8fd-4e88-b89f-8d23ac2fa946> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autotrader.com/research/article/car-news/197844/mercedes-ener-g-force-concept-revealed-la-auto-show-preview.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939973 | 504 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Supreme Court's five conservatives are properly protective of American citizens' First Amendment rights to spend as much of their money as they wish on political speech, both individually and by funding nonprofit advocacy groups. But this was no justification for the court's blockbuster, precedent-smashing Jan. 21 decision unleashing corporate executives to pour unlimited amounts of stockholders' money—without their consent—into ads supporting or attacking federal candidates. Indeed the 5–4 decision would allow any big company to spend a fortune attacking candidates whom many, or even most, of its stockholders would rather support. And corporations—including multinationals controlled by foreigners—will spend money on elections not to advance the political views of their stockholders, but to seek economic advantage.
So the court's decision strikes me as a perverse interpretation of the First Amendment, one that will at best increase the already unhealthy political power of big businesses (and big unions, too), and at worst swamp our elections under a new deluge of special-interest cash. More ominously still, Citizens United v. FEC lends credence to liberal claims that all five of the more conservative justices are "judicial activists," the same imprecation that conservatives have for so long—and often justifiably—hurled at liberal justices.
Judicial activists—at least as I define them—are judges who are unduly eager to aggrandize their own power and impose their own policy preferences on the electorate. They invoke farfetched interpretations of the Constitution to sweep aside democratically adopted laws and deeply rooted societal traditions. I'd hoped that Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who came across in their confirmation hearings as believers in judicial modesty, would bring a healthy dose of restraint to a court long populated by activists, and would thereby shun sharp lurches to the ideological right. It appears that I misjudged them.
I don't accuse the conservative justices of being any more activist than the liberals, who are all too eager to promote their own ideological agendas. But the conservatives have booted away any standing that they may once have had to pose as the guardians of judicial restraint. To wipe out a 63-year-old congressional ban on virtually all corporate and union spending in support of, or opposition to, federal candidates, the conservative justices overruled major Supreme Court precedents from 1990 and 2003. (The decision left intact the ban on direct corporate contributions to candidates.)
Writing the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy proclaimed this necessary to protect the free-speech rights of "citizens." But corporations are not citizens. And while most corporate officers and stockholders are citizens, those who want to pool their money to support or oppose federal candidates have long been free to do so through political action committees. Conservative justices point out that most corporations are owned by one person or a few people for whom forming a PAC would be burdensome. True. But such people have no need to use their corporations as conduits for their campaign spending.
To be sure, two types of corporations have compelling arguments for exemption from the ban on corporate campaign spending. Congress has long exempted media corporations. The First Amendment explicitly protects freedom "of the press" as well as of speech. Those who buy stock in media companies know of, and implicitly consent to, their roles in supporting and opposing candidates. The other group consists of nonprofit ideological corporations whose members pool their money precisely for the purpose of influencing policy. Examples are the Sierra Club, the NRA, and the ACLU. Since 2002 Congress has banned these corporations from election spending—not to prevent corruption by these groups, but rather to stifle "negative attack ads" criticizing members of Congress and other candidates.
The court could, and should, have exempted nonprofit ideological groups without disturbing the ban on business corporations and union campaign spending. But all nine justices passed up the opportunity to carve out such a pragmatic, principled decision. The liberals thereby demonstrated that they are all too ready to sacrifice the First Amendment rights of real citizens who want to pool their money for election spending. But the conservatives—all too eager to expand the political power of big business in the guise of protecting First Amendment rights—are in the driver's seat. | <urn:uuid:6b1e8862-cf77-40c8-af44-b9d078f78d76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/01/21/the-end-of-restraint.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956954 | 842 | 1.585938 | 2 |
May 28, 2009|
Opinion: Guns on Campus “Wrong for Louisiana”
by Dr. Wayne Brumfield
I can’t think of anything more dangerous.
As an unfunded mandate, this bill would cost higher education across our state hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, and in all probability will raise the likelihood that injury will occur if students are armed on campus. State and federal courts today hold the university responsible for student injuries occurring on and off-campus and many have consistently ruled that colleges and universities have a legal duty to protect and warn the campus community.
The Foreseeability Doctrine – which states that higher education officials must anticipate those situations that could potentially result in injury to others – reminds us that due diligence must be exercised at all times. House Bill 27 will produce such a foreseeable danger.
Our campuses are some of the safest places to live, work and study, but that safety is now in jeopardy. The liability HB 27 would impose on Louisiana tax payers could be astronomical if innocent students, faculty, staff, or visitors are injured or killed on campus when students with guns impose their own form of self-protection. How would university police tell who the perpetrator is if everyone at the scene has a gun drawn?
University police officers are the first responders when issues of safety arise on campus. These men and women are post-certified, highly-trained officers who respond to calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech University, university police, State Police, and area law enforcement agencies are now active-shooter trained, which means they now must kill the shooter, while putting their own lives on the line. Active shooter training has changed the way university police respond in such an emergency and this training clearly can save lives.
If House Bill 27 becomes law, it most certainly will contradict the safety measures that are already in place and alter how university police and area law enforcement agencies respond to a crisis situation. Out of all the debate, much attention has been focused on the Second Amendment and the rights of individuals to bear arms even though this is not a second amendment issue – it’s an issue of campus safety and security.
Perhaps little is known about the landmark legal case, District of Columbia v. Heller, decided June 2008, in which the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual’s right to own a firearm.
However, even the most conservative of all the Justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in a 5-4 majority, declared emphatically that “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibition on the possession of firearms or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings or laws imposing conditions on the commercial sale of arms.”
Clearly, Justice Scalia recognizes that guns in schools and government buildings, including the Supreme Court, should continue to be regulated not by the Second Amendment, but by a practical common sense approach, which is sorely needed in this continuing debate over allowing guns to be concealed and carried on college and university campuses.
House Bill 27 is simply wrong for higher education and wrong for Louisiana. | <urn:uuid:9a76d207-f821-4cf9-bf99-966e037fe9b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ulm.edu/universityrelations/news/may09/brumfield.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962293 | 665 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The U.S Department of Agriculture and the American Legion are joining forces to help veterans find jobs in fields like agriculture (natch), nutrition, and food safety. The Department of Defense announced today the new partnership will help make veterans and service members aware of the training programs available to them by the USDA.
The USDA and the American Legion also plan to work together through the internet, newsletters, and other forms of communication to share USDA vacancy announcements, and make sure veteran-owned businesses know about opportunities for USDA contracts.
Also, the USDA wants to make use of the rural locations of many American Legion posts:
American Legion National Commander Fang A. Wong and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack signed a today to seal the deal. Vilsack said of the partnership: | <urn:uuid:a99933be-3064-4d14-b636-0fe0b397bd74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homepost.kpbs.org/news/2012/feb/28/american-legion-and-usda-teaming-up-for-veteran/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944393 | 157 | 1.601563 | 2 |
How to make a Logo
Before I get into the challenges of logo design, I’ll need to provide some background on Brand. After all, a logo is an important element within the bigger picture of corporate visual identity and the even bigger picture of brand strategy. If you’re not working with one of the famous, global ad agencies, you may have never been properly introduced to the proper conceptual structure which will allow you to consider your logo needs in the right way.
By the way, I’m not a professional logo designer. I employ them, I work with them, and I have gone through the challenges of developing several brands with a full host of consultants, brand experts, creative directors, designers, and marketing gurus. In the process, I learned important things about how to make a logo, create a brand, and manage a brand. However, I suspect that many professional and would be brand makers and self-proclaimed graphic designers would contend with my straight forward way of thinking about logos. | <urn:uuid:fcc6f495-3d66-4fe0-96c5-5ca5282d8820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stanfaryna.wordpress.com/tag/business-card/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957136 | 206 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Year to year it seems like people make the same tired resolutions - losing weight and getting in shape. But your relationships need a workout too! Relationship always manage to fall by the wayside because they take overall changes in your lifestyle to increase the quality of your relationship with others and with yourself.
Here are some suggestions which will improve your relationships and may not be so results-based.
- Pick a goal you can attain right away. Pick a movie you haven't watched that you have been meaning to and watch it. If you have been meaning to read a special book, get right to it. It will give you a sense of accomplishment to check one off.
- Pick longer-term goals which are also attainable: Resolve to get your taxes in early and get cracking on them right away. You will have more time to enjoy time with friends and family instead of freaking out at the last minute.
- Make a date with your spouse or significant other at least twice a month. Take the time to make it special, but be flexible about what it is, when it is, and what you do. There are couples who schedule every Friday night without fail. Being inflexible and making it every week may seem overwhelming if you are out of practice. The important thing is that you spend time doing something with your loved one.
- Get more sleep. Dr. Oz told People Magazine and NBC Dateline on 1/6/13 that a lack of sleep can trigger weight gain as well as other health problems. Plus, not getting enough sleep can make you downright grouchy. Being better rested and not so grouchy means you will be more patient with your loved ones. Try getting to sleep earlier or getting up a hair later and see which you like best. Record late night shows that you love and watch them later or watch them online.
- Shut off the TV during dinner. Record anything you think you're missing or watch the news a little bit later. There are multiple and very repetitive news broadcasts with the same top stories, so you really aren't missing anything. You will learn things about your family. Even if everyone is a bit quiet at first, start asking questions about music anyone is listening too that might be of interest rather than sticking to how school or work went. Conversation skills are important to develop and parents or guardians are expected to lead the way.
- Shut off the TV at least one night per week and do something with friends-or do something else that needs to get done. As good as you think it feels to "relax" in front of the TV, Fox, CNN, and TIME magazine all agree that watching too much television has detrimental health effects.
- Try out a new hobby. This can be considered to be one of those easily attainable goals. You don't have too like your new hobby. You don't have to stick with it. You just have to try it and you can check that off your list and know that you accomplished one of your goals. You can try growing some of your own vegetables. Actually you might just want to start with one kind and see how you do. You may kill off all of your seedlings, but the point is to try. It will give you something different to talk about if it's something you have never tried. It's a very inexpensive hobby to try if you get a tray of seed starter pellets and a packet of seeds. If you go to a nursery, you can get some advice from someone who loves gardening rather than going to a big box retail chain which has warm bodies at cash registers.
- Keep track of any accomplishments in the family or with your loved ones. If anyone gets a good grade on a test, or gets on a team, or has a great success with a project be sure to take the time to acknowledge it.
- Log off and silence your ringer! Take some time without social media to spend with friends. Dateline NBC ran a story on January 6, 2013 about roommates taking a digital detox and the challenges they faced. All of the roommates felt that they improved their relationships when they had to spend time talking to people instead of texting and tweeting their thoughts.
- Don't text while driving. California and many other states have laws against texting and driving, but perhaps now is the time to take it more seriously. You will see things you may have missed while you were paying attention to your phone instead of to the road. Testing while driving is not just when you respond, but also when you read emails or text messages. Car and Driver magazine found that texting while driving was more dangerous than drinking and driving! Even the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) is asking that government employees not text while driving and gives some suggestions if you have teen drivers in your family.
Good luck with your New Years Resolutions! Have fun with trying some new things this year! And remember it's not to late to change your new year resolutions around!
Diana Diaz is also the LA Rock Music Examiner. This year she resolves to write a new column as Sex and Relationships Examiner and get everything up and running on the page. She also plans to grow some of her own vegetables - even though she killed lots of seedlings, some lived! She promises not to text while driving and get more sleep.
Read more great articles from Diana Diaz as LA Rock Music Examiner:
- Rodriguez and "Searching for Sugar Man": success only took 40 years
- "Django Unchained" features terrific soundtrack
- West LA Music closes after 46 years, musicians react
- Beach House v. VW: Does an indie band have a case against a corporate monster?
- What does the sale of AEG mean for Coachella, concerts, and music? | <urn:uuid:ac328520-b9d4-47de-b5de-55e755ce8507> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.examiner.com/article/10-new-year-s-resolutions-that-give-your-relationships-a-workout?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97597 | 1,174 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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|GR: Eleanor's sense of right
Written by Christen M
(4/11/2003 10:33 p.m.)
in consequence of the missive, GR Henry’s intentions II, penned by Shir
I don't think Eleanor would have "included Henry in her observation." Wouldn't that be outside the lines of propriety--to tell someone your conclusions regarding what someone else said??? I do not mean to suggest that Eleanor is running ahead of herself; her conclusions are obviously correct, not merely conjecture, but I still don't believe it would be honorable. I always view Eleanor as another Jane Bennet, always doing exactly what is right. Although Eleanor and Henry are close, I doubt she would feel that she had any right to share her observation of Catherine's feelings towards Henry to Henry.
What does everyone else think?
Northanger Abbey is maintained by Cheryl and Linda with WebBBS 3.21. | <urn:uuid:3261b8d7-72fd-4e7a-9c92-8fa6e2da6d05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pemberley.com/bin/na/nagr2003.cgi?read=5570 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97544 | 201 | 1.765625 | 2 |
BOULDER — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday outlined an expanded "all of the above" strategy for balancing conservation of public lands with increased domestic energy production.
"We see energy independence within our grasp," Salazar said in a speech to about 180 participants in a symposium at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. The audience ranged from senior federal land managers to anti-coal activists to members of the CU student government.
"The national security of the United States should never be compromised by the fact that we have to import oil from foreign places where dictators reign," Salazar said.
Salazar was in Colorado for a campaign appearance with President Barack Obama in Golden, and then planned to swing through the state for an America's Great Outdoors stakeholder meeting on the Western Slope and to announce the creation of a national wildlife refuge on the east side of the San Luis Valley.
The refuge, to be officially announced Friday in Denver, is anchored in a conservation easement with billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon in exchange for the preservation of 170,000 acres of ranchland, more than double the 80,000-acre arrangement with Bacon announced earlier this year.
But in Boulder, Salazar's focus was on energy.
The strategy he discussed in the speech — and elaborated on in interviews later — embraces oil and gas drilling, solar power, geo-thermal power and wind-power systems.
New financial incentives will be offered to energy producers in each area to encourage increased production on public lands.
Salazar said the incentives offered to producers on the "new energy frontier" need to be available to producers for a longer period of time."
The government will seek renewal of production tax credits for wind energy, which recently were cut.
"That industry needs to continue to build from where it is today," he said. "We're going to need tax credits for that to happen."
Salazar said the incentives could boost solar energy production to 10,000 megawatts from 7,500 by the end of the year.
Obama administration officials also are working to improve mapping of sensitive wetlands and other areas, and ideal locations for energy production — and to have more of this planning done more in advance — to ensure "a permitting effort that is even more efficient than it has been in the past," he said.
"We are going to see a rapidity," particularly in the issuance of permits for solar energy, he said.
The strategy includes continued investment in research and development for development of all forms of energy, targeting facilities such as the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden.
As for oil and gas production on public lands, Salazar said overall production has increased 13 percent over the past four years, reducing oil imports to 45 percent of what the nation consumes, and will continue to increase.
"Oil and gas is very much a part of our program," Salazar said. | <urn:uuid:03ca18ff-3080-4e4b-9d09-1a7e1f26d036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_21539529/salazar-all-energy-production-ok-public-land-careful | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968154 | 593 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Imagine a world where...
Picasso checked his Klout score daily
The Rolling Stones were signed because of their YouTube views
Hemingway got a book deal because people "liked" his short stories.
We don't know if the increasing overlap between art and web analytics is making culture better or worse. Either way, we wish more people were talking about it. We first started thinking about this dilemma in the context of fashion week after being exposed to the MADE app, created by Milk. This new "must have" fashion app makes it possible for people to download the latest trends/looks while sitting courtside at the runway and then email/share/like them. Apparently this is a great utility for fashion editors, who previously had to partake in A to Z shenanigans involving all types of outdated methods (email, phone, picture sharing) to get a hold of their favorite designs.
An unanticipated output of the app is all the data it's capturing when fashionistas/editors/onlookers start interacting with the designs the minute they hit the runways. It's a whole new world where suddenly people see the outfit on the catwalk and BAM, designers get instant feedback. As Mazdack Rassi ,the creative director from Milk, noted at a panel, the response of designers to the data has been varied. While some have been anxious to see it, other have specifically asked him not to share. Mr Rassi didn't seem to have a particular position on the designers response or the use of the data. We were hoping he was going to hit us with some sweet words of cultural guidance. That didn't happen and we were left feeling a little like our Dad just told us to set our own curfew.
Never ones to not try something, Clark and Sarah decided to take that app for a test drive. After attempting to download it numerous times, finally succeeding, then being trapped in a closet turned runway, we still weren't convinced. The app is very neat and probably pretty useful, but we were still wondering where the responsibility lies with all this data it's collecting. Let's be clear, we aren't suggesting that the app creators are completely accountable for how it's used. We just hope that someone is driving this bus, not just putting a brick on the gas pedal and hoping we don't hit anything.
Here's our thinking. As we rapidly approach a point where we can collect data on pretty much anything, it's important that we are thoughtful about how it's going to be used and who it's going to be used by. It's not that it can't be freely available, but if it is, we should probably have a conversation about the affect it could or is having. Not that anyone asked us, but we'd like to throw that into the panel suggestion box for next year. What happens when you integrate consumer preferences and large scale feedback into the creation of art and culture? What do we gain and what do we lose?
Follow Sarah Hall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HarleyandCo | <urn:uuid:47e518a9-62ee-4ec6-8633-2fe89c687f21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-hall/nyfw-art-plus-analytics-w_b_1281617.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981494 | 623 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Conservatory revoation project continues
The Conservatory renovation project has begun to take shape, and last week we took some photos. Check them out!
Conservatory at Birmingham Botanical Gardens to undergo $1.4 million renovation project
In 2013, one of Birmingham’s most iconic sights will undergo a $1.4 million renovation project, allowing the Conservatory at Birmingham Botanical Gardens to open to the public for the first time since April of 2011. Originally opened in December of 1963 and designed by the now defunct Lord & Burnham firm, the building has become a rare piece of architecture as many similar structures across the nation have since been razed. Though safety concerns about the building’s glass ceiling forced its closure, the structure remains sturdy and especially worthy of preservation as one of the last of its kind.
This project, Phase I of a series envisioned in The Gardens’ master plan, will begin in earnest in May, after the season’s final frost. This phase will include stripping the old glass and cleaning the structure, upgrading base electrical distribution and automating ventilation sashes, repairing interior partition walls and replacing doors, remediating asbestos and lead, re-glazing with safety glass, restoring the original entrance appearance and installing an internal mylar shade blanket and insulation system. Its completion will allow the Conservatory to open for public use for the first time in two years. September is the targeted date for completion, in time for the new school year’s return of Discovery Field Trips, The Gardens’ award-winning, curriculum-based educational programs which have provided a free science education to nearly 100,000 Birmingham children over the last decade. Phase I does not include new exhibits, and some old exhibits have been removed from the Conservatory in order to facilitate the project.
The Pennington Group, Inc. has been awarded the project. Based in Birmingham, The Pennington Group, Inc. is a commercial contractor offering a full range of construction services, registered and licensed in the state of Alabama. The Pennington Group, Inc. has developed a firm foundation for commercial construction and is often selected as the contractor for interior renovation, rebuilding, demolition and build-out projects. The City of Birmingham funded $115,000 for the design and engineering performed by Montgomery Smith, Inc. in 2012; principle Jim Smith has been retained for construction administration Phase I. The City also supplied in-kind services to shepherd this project through the design and bidding process.
The $1.4 million Conservatory Improvement Project, Phase I, was made possible through the generous donations of: The Lucille S. Beeson Charitable Trust, The Brooke Family Foundation, City of Birmingham, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Lyndra and Bill Daniel, The Daniel Foundation of Alabama, Lorol Roden Bowron Rediker Rucker Foundation and two anonymous donors. Additional funding was provided by The Butrus Family Advised Fund at Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and The Holly Oak Garden Club.
This project is just Phase I of a lengthy plan to maximize the potential of The Gardens’ Conservatory. While it will conclude with the facility being open for Discovery Field Trips, long-term plans envision an even brighter future:
Phase II: addition of indoor exhibits
Phase III: addition of horticulture office and maintenance building
Phase IV: addition of conservatory buildings, concert stage and conservatory terraces
Phase V: addition of new potting shed and production greenhouses
Phase VI: addition of activities building and public restrooms, Persian Garden, expanded Bruno Vegetable Garden, Herb Terrace and Carver crops
We’re eager to see one of the Magic City’s landmarks evolve over the coming years! Come see us grow at Birmingham Botanical Gardens! | <urn:uuid:72fadbcf-ddba-47f3-a62a-a2aac70e3289> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.bbgardens.org/?tag=conservatory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93387 | 771 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check out the spending boost planned by Americans for Halloween.
The National Retail Federation said spending by the 148 million Americans who partake in the “spooky” October holiday is expected to surge almost 18 percent this year as revelers look for any reason not to think about high unemployment and a shaky housing market.
“In recent years, Halloween has provided a welcome break from reality, allowing many Americans a chance to escape from the stress the economy has put on their family and incomes,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
“This year, people are expected to embrace Halloween with even more enthusiasm, and will have an entire weekend to celebrate since the holiday falls on a Sunday,” he added.
Americans will spend an average of $66.28 on costumes, candy and decorations (or a total of $5.8 billion), up from last year’s average of $56.31. However, that is still short of the $66.54 spent in 2008, according to the study conducted by BIGresearch for the NRF. Retailers love Halloween because it comes between the back-to-school and December holidays in luring consumers into stores.
Check out the strong quarterly profit at discount retailer Dollar General.
The company, which prices most of its merchandise below $10, posted a stronger-than-expected profit thanks to bargain-seeking consumers who spent more per visit. Company executives talked of building sales momentum during the quarter and sales results in the current three-month period were encouraging.
As a result, Dollar General, which has received a boost from high U.S. unemployment rates, raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Check out the apparent return of the frugalista.
Worries about stubbornly high U.S. unemployment and a tempermental economic recovery has shoppers reeling in spending on all but the essentials.
The 28 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters reported an overall 2.9 percent rise in July sales at stores open at least one year, missing Wall Street forecasts of 3.1 percent. Seventeen of those retailers reported lower-than-expected sales, while nine — including Macy’s and Kohl’s — beat estimates.
Check out the confused American consumer.
Coca-Cola Co actually saw sales volume rise in North America in the second quarter, a rare feat.
Now imagine what would happen if U.S. consumers could actually figure out if they can afford to keep spending the money on a soda, what with high unemployment and the jittery stock market.
Check out back-to-school spending trends.
Joe High School may have every right to be jealous of his younger siblings during this back-to-school shopping season, according to a survey conducted by PriceGrabber.com, a part of Experian.
Consumers plan to buy more gadgets — laptop computers, cell phones and other accessories — for elementary school students, almost doubling spending in some cases, while the rate of growth is expected to be lower if not negative for many high schoolers, according to the “Back-to-School Shopping Consumer Behavior Report.”
“Laptops and other electronics are the most expensive items on most back-to-school shopping lists. The increase in gadgets purchased for elementary school students has forced parents to increase the overall budget at an earlier age,” Barbary Brunner, chief marketing officer at PriceGrabber said in a statement.
“However, the survey data implies that while some parents are purchasing laptops and electronics for high school students, other parents are forgoing the purchase of the latest and greatest new technology for high schoolers who already have late-model devices,” she added.
Meanwhile, 45 percent of those surveyed will spend the same amount as last year on back-to-school shopping and 14 percent will spend more, according to PriceGrabber.
Check out an American Express survey that shows that quality service matters more than ever, suggesting U.S. retailers may want to start sucking up to recession-wary consumers even more.
Sixty-one percent of Americans polled said quality customer service is more important in today’s tough economy and that they will spend an average of 9 percent more when they think a company is providing that. Important points when some analysts and investors worry the economy may be at risk of dipping back into recession.
In a disconnect, however, many businesses seem to be missing the message as 28 percent of those polled believe that companies are paying less attention to good service and 27 percent have not changed their attitudes, according to the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer (which sounds like a weather vane for customer service).
“Customers want and expect superior service,” AmEx executive vice president Jim Bush said in a statement. “Especially in this tight economic environment, consumers are focused on getting good value for their money. ”
“Many consumers say companies haven’t done enough to improve their approach to service in this economy, and yet it’s clear they’re willing to spend more with those that deliver excellent service – suggesting substantial growth opportunities for businesses that get customer service right,” he added.
Retailers might want to keep all that in mind given the fact that June same-store sales came in slightly below expectations and some analysts see the sector treading water.
The survey was conducted in the United States and 11 other countries.
In the United States, nine in 10 of those surveyed consider the level of service important when deciding to do business with a company, the survey said. However, only 24 percent believe companies value their business and will go the extra mile to keep it.
Contrary to “conventional wisdom,” the survey showed more are inclined to talk about a positive experience (75 percent) than complain about a negative one (59 percent).
And consumers said they are far more likely to give a company offering good service repeat business (81 percent) than they are to never do business with a company again after a poor experience (52 percent), according to the poll.
However, negative feedback online weighs more heavily as almost half of consumers gather others’ opinions about a company’s customer service reputation and they put greater credence in negative reviews (57 percent) versus positive ones (48 percent), according to AmEx.
“Because consumers can broadcast their views so widely online, each and every service interaction a company has with its customers becomes even more crucial,” Bush said. “Developing relationships with customers, listening to them, anticipating their needs, and resolving any issues quickly and courteously can help make the difference.”
In fact, 81 percent of Americans have decided never to do business with a company again because of poor customer service in the past, the poll said. Half of those surveyed said it takes two poor service experiences before they stop doing business with a company.
However, 86 percent will give a company a second chance after a bad experience if they have historically had great service before, according to the poll.
Woe to those who screw the experience up too, as 52 percent of consumers expect something in return after poor service beyond just resolving the problem. Seventy percent want an apology or some form of reimbursement.
So retailers, I expect red carpet treatment and a lot of sucking up this recession or you won’t get any of my limited funds!
Check out the latest poll on affluent consumers’ spending habits.
Affluent consumers around the world may be worried about the economy, but they are still spending on items they value most: food, wine and dining out, according to a study released by HSBC Global Pulse.
Seventy-two percent of those polled said the amount of wine they drank had not changed in the past year, while 67 percent said their spending on wine was unchanged, HSBC said.
Check out the renovations being planned by U.S. homeowners this year.
According to an American Express Spending & Saving Tracker poll, 62 percent of homeowners plan to tackle remodeling and renovation projects in 2010 to improve their home’s appearance and value (the top two motivators, respectively). However, many (53 percent) also believe a return to a seller’s market in real estate is not expected for two or more years.
Even with the soft housing market, 85 percent of homeowners consider their home as their most valuable asset and will spend an average of $6,200 to enhance it, according to the monthly study.
Check out the return of the shopper. Even at Abercrombie & Fitch.
Several U.S. retailers showed off strong sales gains — albeit over an ugly February 2009 — despite the winter storms that bashed the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and other parts of the United States.
It’s too early to declare a major rebound yet, analysts said, but the sales gains signal that consumers are heading back to stores for more than just the essentials these days.
Most consumers in romantic relationships don’t plan to spend much, if anything, on Valentine’s Day gifts, according to a new survey from Accenture. That backs up the findings from a National Retail Federation survey, which found that U.S. couples planned to spend 6 percent less on each other this year. | <urn:uuid:ff7ca03a-99aa-4a31-a9f0-e15d0cfefbb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/shop-talk/tag/consumer-spending/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958131 | 1,932 | 1.65625 | 2 |
HIV-positive Alberta teen denied bail
The teenage Alberta girl accused of having unprotected sex without disclosing that she is HIV-positive was denied bail Tuesday on two charges of aggravated sexual assault. A judge in Edmonton ordered her kept in custody and imposed a publication ban on evidence presented at the hearing, which is automatic when the defence requests it.
Following complaints from two males, Edmonton police took the unusual step of obtaining a court order that allowed them to release the 17-year-old's name and photograph as part of their effort to find her.
She was arrested in Edson, Alta., charged and can no longer be named because of prohibitions in the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Shortly after her name and photograph were made public, a third complainant came forward to police.
It is a crime in Canada for a person who is knowingly HIV-positive to have unprotected sex without telling a partner about the infection. The Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that someone cannot give valid consent to unprotected intercourse while unaware of a partner's HIV.
Release of information 'overreaction'
More questions were raised Tuesday about whether it was necessary for police to release the girl's name, photo and medical condition in the first place. "She's the victim, being victimized again, by a system that says that she is a bad person," said Wallis Kendal, an advocate who works with troubled youth in Edmonton. Kendal was in the courtroom Tuesday to support the young woman during her first appearance. He wonders how hard police worked to find her before releasing her personal information to the public.
Legal experts shared Kendal's concerns.
"It should be used as a last resort. Not as a starting point," said Tracey Bailey, the executive director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. "I would hope that we would start with lesser measures wherever we can."
Richard Elliott, the executive director of the Canadian HIV Legal Network, called the move an overreaction by Edmonton police and worried about the precedent it may set. "The fact this was done now with a young person under the age of 18 for the first time may well encourage other police services to do this again in [the] future," he said.
The advocacy group HIV Edmonton also criticized the police decision to release the teen's name and photo, saying it was an overreaction and that it could discourage others from coming forward. "It makes you really sick to your stomach because you know that this is going to be following this young woman for the rest of her life," Shelley Williams, the organization's interim executive director, said Monday.
"From a legal standpoint she's a minor; it's not supposed to be disclosed. It's disclosed and somehow it's supposed to disappear a day later because the law says 'OK, now nobody can put their name out or their picture out anymore?' Well, it's too late, it's already out there."
HIV Edmonton advocates that people disclose their status to their sexual partners. But Williams said the actions of Edmonton police in this case could cause others with HIV to be more secretive about their status to avoid the possible stigma.
Edmonton police did not respond to a request by CBC News for an interview. | <urn:uuid:aaa66d9d-fe9f-4dfe-baab-1d7bd04062c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.positivelivingbc.org/news/110810/hiv-positive-alberta-teen-denied-bail?page=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979145 | 655 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The top Africa envoy for the United States told reporters in South Africa Thursday that Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the "clear" victor in last month's presidential election.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer is visiting southern Africa to consult with the region's governments on Zimbabwe's election crisis. Almost four weeks after Zimbabweans voted in elections on March 29, the government has failed to release the results of presidential polling.
"The most credible results we have today are a clear victory for Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round and maybe a total victory," Frazer said, according to Agence France-Presse. Frazer added that "there should be a change."
Zimbabwe's electoral law requires that a presidential candidate receive more than 50 percent of votes cast to avoid a run-off. Unofficial results and reports have indicated that Tsvangirai received about 50 percent.
According to the Associated Press, Frazer acknowledged the possibility that negotiations between the ruling party, led by President Robert Mugabe, and the opposition may be necessary. "There may need to be a political solution, a negotiated solution," she said.
Reuters reported that Frazer, citing the long delay in releasing results, told reporters: "We now doubt the credibility of any results that would be released."
She added that she supports an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, as proposed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Brown and the leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, met in London on Thursday. In a joint statement, they called for "an end to any violence and intimidation and stress the importance of respect for the sovereign people of Zimbabwe and the choice they have made at the ballot box." | <urn:uuid:c06c0cbe-22ef-458c-ba49-2f75ac24df20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/200804240848.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965108 | 363 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Here at in
Archive for August, 2010
In fairly predictable fashion, news organizations are providing “milestone” updates on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
In the news business, we commit entire teams of reporters, photojournalists, videographers to look back and look forward on anniversaries.
But, with such a catastrophic event as Hurricane Katrina ordeal, we mark the anniversary every year. So yet another anniversary seems like no big deal, or at least no bigger deal than the fourth anniversary or the third anniversary. So what?
I suppose it’s useful to look at some of the projects that are on-air, in print and online.
FIVE Notable Examples of Katrina Anniversary Coverage
1. USA WEEKEND
Even though I did not get a hard copy as it does not circulate in West Alabama, USA WEEKEND used CNN’s cover guy and frontline anchor, Anderson Cooper to “front” its cover story “Katrina 5 Years Later.”
Writing in the first person, Cooper gives a personal perspective to this story using the words of his father in his lead. While I wonder how much of this piece he actually “REPORTED” and how much was just a quite write-up from his many visits as a CNN anchor, his closer words are worth repeating.
We all must continue to bear witness to what happens here. We must visit New Orleans, walk the streets, hear the music. This still-great city has much to teach us about survival, resilience and moving forward while still remembering the past.
2. USA Today
While USA Weekend magazine appeared in millions of Sunday papers, days earlier Gannett’s flagship national news product, USA Today offered several noteworthy pieces, available on its Website:
Asking the provocative question “5 years after Katrina: Can it happen again?,” USA Today’s editorial board offered THREE (3) improvements needed to make the city safer: flood protection, natural barriers, and urban planning.
Elsewhere, the paper’s Thomas Frank explains in a USA TODAY cover story that FEMA’s flood insurance program is “running deeply in the red.” Why?
Frank reports that the program has paid people to rebuild over and over in the nation’s worst flood zones while also discounting insurance rates by up to $1 billion a year for flood-prone properties.
Even if you’re interested in marking a five-year anniversary, this news makes Katrina relevant to all of us.
And, USA Today editorial board opined on this later in the week.
3. Montgomery Advertiser
Here in Alabama, the Montgomery Advertiser put together a really good example of how to use multimedia to package the BIG STORY.
Anchored by a story by Rick Harmon, which was the centerpiece on the today’s Sunday paper, the special section is a companion to a three-part series, fhe first of which ran this morning.
Backed by the resources of a sister newspaper, The (New Orleans) Times Picayune, NOLA.com brings together much of its coverage from five years ago in a special section similar to the Montgomery Advertiser.
The biggest value of this section is its reflection of the multimedia approach we as journalists can take to our coverage. From transcripts of key speeches to interactive graphics and photo galleries, there is much to keep people on this site for more than just a brief visit.
5. The Weather Channel
Not exactly known for its Web-based news coverage, The Weather Channel’s Web site, even as it covers multiple hurricanes that are brewing this week, did devote some space to marking the anniversary.
I learned a new term, “editorial meteorologist” as I read Jonathan Erdman’s coverage.
NPR goes the distance with Katrina
Even as we watched the television networks like Brian Williams and his top-rated NBC Nightly News anchor their coverage from New Orleans many, many times after the tragedy five years ago (NBC opened a bureau there), National Public Radio gets the award for its continuous coverage of this story.
Even when stories like the earthquake in Haiti or the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico took centerstage, I would hear stories on NPR’s signature programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, from New Orleans on how the city was moving forward post-Katrina.
This is a commitment I don’t believe this is a commitment other news organizations matched. (Of course, it might be that I just missed what the other outlets did)
NPR’s Katrina and Beyond section reflects that “continuous coverage” strategy even now, on this fifth anniversary.
It’s the first day of school at the University of Alabama and like clockwork, we’re talking about textbook prices, again!
This has become a bit of a cliche for the “back-to-school” edition of the campus paper. But, I understand if you are a student, textbook prices are front-and-center on the first day.
The Crimson White, which publishes four days a week will have two editions this week and chose to position a textbook story on its front page.
As a member of the University Textbook committee, I know how much the Bookstore is excited about its textbook rental program, which allows students to access books at lower prices provided they are returned in good condition at the end of the semester.
There are many blogs online, which means you need to distinguish yourself and your blog. In the Reporting and Writing Across Media class, we are learning how to post video introduction and how to use iMovie.
For my introduction, I produced a video of James McCanatha, my graduate assistant.
Shooting this video was fairly simple because I had a cooperative subject, who is very camera-friendly. He is a photojournalist and knows what it’s like to be in front of as well as behind the camera.
What was a challenge is making sure I have my file saved in the right place because I don’t have my external hard drive today.
James actually shoots photos and posts them regularly to his blog, which is called Project 365.
He began this blog within the last few months.
DONELSON, Tenn– One week after flying into Nashville International Airport from the AEJMC Conference, I’m demonstrating the in’s and out’s of videography on a real-world assignment here in a suburb east town.
We had an 8:30 a.m. start in an area that’s become somewhat familiar — Donelson, a town not far from the airport. Our assignment was the interview Mary Moran, who heads the Nashville Irish Step Dancers (NISD), a group she founded 20 years ago.
The “our” is the story refer to the videographer Elizabeth Varin from Inland Valley Press and I. Varin formerly worked as a videographer. Now she’s full-time as a reporter.
She didn’t even reveal to me that she was a videographer until AFTER we were headed back from our assignment. That forced me to try and fail in some things on our assignment.
We took two cameras so that I could chronicle the videographic experience for sharing later in my class. I even managed to do two stand-ups. But at this moment, I don’t know how they came out.
So far, Boot Camp, Day 4 is keeping me very busy.
NASHVILLE– What started out as an exciting day– one where we would be shooting our first videos at the Multimedia Boot Camp here at the Freedom Forum’s John Siegenthaler Center– turned out to be a big learning experience in what not to do when you shooting with a high end camera.
After 400 plus people have been through this 5-day intensive workshop, our class of 12 is the first to use digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras that shoot both video and stills. The $1600 dollar Canon 7D can shoot HD video and high quality still photos.
“This is really the next thing, ” said Val Hoeppner, who directs the Diversity Institute’s Multimedia Boot Camp. “This is what all the newsrooms are doing.”
It’s nice to know that we’re truly working with cutting edge equipment here. But, that doesn’t mean there were no challenges along the way.
But, after doing two takes for our video, we hit a big snag when we began to edit our video in Final Cut Express– no audio.
We thought we had manage to effectively troubleshoot. But, then when we re-shot our video, it still was not satisfactory.
As it turns, the cable connecting our microphone to the digital SLR camera was not tight enough and that caused the feedback.
To make matters worse, I’m not as good as I thought I was at manually focusing my shots. So some of our video was a little out of focus.
This project was done on-site.
Tomorrow (Saturday), we will shoot out in the heat on-location.
NASHVILLE- It’s 7 p.m. and we’re just wrapping up from a 10-hour day as the Multimedia Boot Camp continues here on the Vanderbilt campus.
We didn’t go out into the field today as much as we worked for hours and hours on the audio for our first audio and photo project. Clearly, i’ve been emphasizing the wrong things when it comes to teaching my students how to use the popular photo gallery-producing software, Soundslides.
What I learned today about how to work in the Audacity audio editing program is going to be immediately put to work as a I try to edit some audio gathered last week at the AEJMC Conference in Denver, Colo.
Even something as simple as having a project presentation at the END of the project completion (instead of waiting until the end of the course) is an important lesson. I’m used to doing end-of-semester presentations (usually during final exam days). But, starting this fall, we will be taking time as we go through the class to have students present and critique each other’s work.
Usually when it comes to shooting video, I think I’m reasonably informed. Boy was I wrong! After we all presented our projects to the class, we were not only were introduced to quick keys in editing with Final Cut Express (similar to those in Final Cut Pro) but also sent to start cutting and organizing video clips in minutes. Wow!
Then, minutes later Val Hoeppner, our instructor dropped the BOMb of the day: “If there is no action, there is no video”
All of this time, I’ve been focusing on video for the Web as shooting and cutting soundbites and video of places. But, what about video of action?
Well, until now.
Hoeppner’s point is that action is key to making the best story with video camera. Duh! I should know that as a broadcast television producer. The problem is I have not been doing it with my camera.
Tomorrow– Day THREE.. we will be shooting and editing our first video pieces.
it’s going to be another grueling day. But, I’m ready for it.
NASHVILLE– Greetings from the Music City where I am just starting a five-day multimedia boot camp designed to help me as a instructor learn to better shoot, edit and tell stories across platforms.
I’m here at The Freedom Forum’s John Siegenthaler Center on Vanderbilt University’s campus with 11 other colleagues from various universities, newspapers and other outlets.
Today’s highlight was our first assignment– to shoot photos and gather audio for an audio photo gallery. We worked in teams of two and I had the pleasure of having a top-notch freelance voiceover artist from South Dakota, who is with child.
Don’t get me wrong– the fact that my partner, Colleen Olson, is pregnant had little impact on her abilities behind the camera or in front of the computer when it comes to audio editing.
She was great as we traveled to Pegram, Tennessee, a small town about 20 minutes west of Nashville.
Photos and Sound in Pegram
It was like I was working at the TV station all over again. I felt like I was a reporter or a field producer as I went out on assignment.
It’s a miracle! I think we actually managed to get some usable audio. And, we didn’t use a very high-end recorder to gather it.
Day 1′s Most Important Lessons
Even before we went out on our first assignment, our instructors here at the Siegenthaler Center, Val Hoeppner and Anne Medley, started filling our heads with what is nothing short of the best multimedia insight I’ve received since my days doing a workshop at The Poynter Institute.
It was all set up by Jack Marsh, the vice president for diversity programs and the director at one of The Freedom Forum’s other locations, the Al Neuharth Media Center at University of South Dakota.
“We believe the walls are gone between broadcast and print,” Marsh said. ” Print majors and broadcast majors– these days are gone.”
Yeh, I heard this talked about years ago. Now as a broadcast news producer by trade sitting next to an veteran photojournalist from Hagerstown, Maryland, I can see what Marsh was saying.
Coleen’s specialty clearly was in taking photos and doing voicework. But, she edited the audio in our project like a pro.
I teach multimedia journalism and think I know a little about the subject. But, there were some definite lessons to take back to Tuscaloosa from this first day:
- The “broadcast model” of talking and telling doesn’t work well online.
- Multimedia is more than just video and still photographs.
- Multimedia includes such things as a panorama, data and graphics, timelines , maps and a time lapse.
- Good audio makes you “feel more deeply.”
- Use blog postings like this or copy blocks and bullets to give the 5 w’s and H instead of trying put every story detail in a video or photo piece.
- There’s a difference between “enhancing the story” and “mirroring the story.”
- In the online environment, it’s all about “time on site.”
- Our online audience wants depth and TV stations shoveling out news packages aren’t providing it.
Between meetings, events, presentations and off-site events, it’s been hard to find time to write anything here on my blog.
But, thinking back over the last three days, I have to say the biggest disappointment was the keynote by NPR’s Anne Garrels. While she provided some great insights about how her reporting experience has changed in the digital media world, the end of her speech was not very outstanding.
Maybe it’s because we had higher expectations than we should have of someone who is not a frequent public speaker.
She talked about the technological shifts that she has had to make.
“I’m a neanderthal” were the first words of her keynote address, which was easily the most well-attended events at his convention that draws thousands of journalism educators like myself from around the world.
At least one blogger posted a good summary of her main points.
She explained how “sound has become truly important again” referencing her work as a correspondent for National Public Radio.
Speaking of sound, I have an audio recording of her address, which I will listen to listen to and cull for a later, more substantive posting.
Things went downhill
Despite all the great advice she gave at the top of her address, Garrels took a turn about 15 minutes into her address and never seemed to recover. She started making points, but not finishing them.
Finally after several attempts to re-start, she just admitted that she had lost her place in her prepared remarks. And, quickly brought things to an end.
Even though we’d like to think we are, all broadcast journalists are not great speakers.
Garrels may have been a tad bit uncomfortable addressing an audience of fellow journalists, now journalism professors.
She may have just been working through some of her ideas in her mind before getting up to speak.
I don’t know. But, I couldn’t resist pointing out this lowpoint of the AEJMC Conference.
Still, thanks to former CNN Correspondent Charles Bierbauer (now dean at University of South Carolina) who helped secure Garrels to be our opening speaker, we were exposed to a less stellar side of a stellar international correspondent.
I want to write more about what she did say– perhaps in a day or so after the hectic days of the conference are behind me.
That’s the first piece of advice coming out of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference here in the ‘Mile High’ City.
This morning’s panel “Preparing Students for What’s Next in Student Media” featured a couple of academics (journalism professors who work with students every day) and a full-time video journalist from KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs.
It was Andy Koen from KOAA-TV who gave the advice about personal branding, a reality he faces as he also shoots and edits his own television stories.
Andy talked about the challenges of having time to add things to his blog while doing the other things that television news reporters have to do.
Koen also showed off some of his videography on his YouTube channel.
In one example, he explained how a posting of his news package from the Air Force Academy graduation has had hundreds of views.
Meeting Andy and seeing his work, getting his advice for my students is the reason we make the trip to Colorado for AEJMC each year. | <urn:uuid:80258eaa-e3b4-4490-8799-ccf6fea01cb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bamaproducer.wordpress.com/2010/08/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965571 | 3,845 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Note: This post originally appeared in Alan’s blog Ronin Research.
Everyone likes to point out how wonderful social media is – how they connected with lost friends from high school, they met new friends with similar interested, and all the cool things they learned. Marketers love it too because it gives them a great new channel to to connect and engage with customers in
But social media has a downside too – just ask Mat Honan, or Bank of America, or Nestle, or Kenneth Cole about social engineering, damage to a brand reputation, the release of confidential information, regulatory violations, and other risks. The risks are real, and the threats are now.
My colleague Jaimy Szymanski and I interviewed 33 professionals and vendors on the front end of social media risk management and surveyed 92 professionals who said social media risk management was either a significant part or the primary part of their job. The result is our report Guarding The Social Gates: The Imperative For Social Media Risk Management which looks at the newly emerging field of social media risk management.
What we found was that social media is the modern Pandora’s box – It has great value but almost two-thirds of companies we surveyed say that social media is a significant or critical risk to their brand reputation. The biggest risk? Brand reputation, followed on by the errant release of confidential information, the loss of IP, and regulatory and compliance issues.
And 60% of companies either never train their employees about their corporate social media policies or do so only upon hiring. Moreover, 43% of companies have less then one FTE dedicated to managing social media risk.
To safeguard brand reputation, protect information and intellectual property, and mitigate legal actions, organizations need to be more proactive about managing social media risk. We found that to set up an effective social media risk management process, organizations need to focus on the IAME loop:
1) Identifying social media risks;
2) Assessing and prioritizing those risks against limited resources;
3) Mitigate and manage those risks to reduce the impact on the organization; and
4) Evaluate emerging risk against mitigation efforts.
Social media risk is an emerging area and will continue to grow, and this report is only the beginning of what we will see in this area. Look for my future reports around social media policies and GRC in a social media world.
As with all of the research efforts at Altimeter Group, Guarding The Gates is published under the Open Research model. Use it, share it, and we will publish more.
We will cross link to insightful reviews and related content. | <urn:uuid:ddfed12e-1a75-4b41-9d3e-8fa7d20c0b92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.altimetergroup.com/2012/08/the-imperative-for-social-risk-management.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940092 | 535 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Rain, hail, and snow drive state into an early winter
Winter's official arrival may still be a month off but it won't feel so far away today with rain, hail and snow set to fall on Victoria.
Any remnants of autumn's sunshine are likely to be gone from most Melburnians' minds with a forecast top temperature of only 15 degrees for the second day running after an overnight low of 8.4 degrees.
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Rod Dickson said the city's eastern suburbs would bear the brunt of rain and possible hail throughout the day and evening.
Showers will be more scattered in the north and west of the city, Mr Dickson said.
The cool start to May has seen snow fall in alpine regions, particularly Mt Baw Baw but Mr Dickson said popular resorts in Mount Buller, Falls Creek and Mount Hotham may miss out.
The rain is expected to drench the eastern suburbs until tomorrow afternoon when the showers are predicted to ease.
Despite the wet weather, autumn's chilly goodbye may not herald a nasty winter.
Mr Dickson said the three-month outlook had predicted an increased chance of this winter being drier and warmer than average.
"[Today] is a bit of an early taste of winter but that is the longer forecast," Mr Dickson said. | <urn:uuid:60caed59-b682-48ec-b0a8-3e189d10fa39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watoday.com.au/environment/weather/rain-hail-and-snow-drive-state-into-an-early-winter-20120503-1y0aq.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950087 | 275 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Global Text Project is building student engagement across campus. Last spring, Associate Editor, Marisa Drexel, implemented an internship program for students to work on production of textbooks. Five English majors signed up. They worked in the Global Text office daily to learn about the open education movement and electronic publication. Two continued on the project during summer and this fall four of the original five are still actively working eight hours per week to publish electronic books for university students in developing economies.
“Our interns are really pioneers in the growing trend towards electronic publishing. They are learning cutting-edge technology, like EPUB for e-readers. They will leave with the skills needed to compete in a new era of the publishing industry,” says Marisa.
The interns successfully collaborated on publishing two textbooks in the spring semester semester, acquired new links to add to the GTP library, worked to build new relationships throughout the university community. They published two more books this fall and are designing a student-led program for on-campus recruitment and training. Students are a valuable resource and are needed at every stage of the publishing process. | <urn:uuid:c2b1db0e-bc41-4077-b081-314899cb22af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.terry.uga.edu/news/announcements/global-text-project-internship-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958033 | 228 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Hello, John and Doves,
Mardi Gras 2012 falls on Tuesday, February 21, 2012.
The Carnival [think Rio] cruise ship Costa Concordia [think ecumenism] sank on Friday, January 13, 2012.
The lives lost in this tragedy stand in human contrast to our great God.
"Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear." Isaiah 59:1
I believe that Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem to Joseph and the Virgin Mary, about 2014 years ago, on Sukkot, died on the cross for our sins so that HaShem could save anyone He wanted to save, for any reason, or for no discernable reason at all.
Having said that, I conclude with John that,
"If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
Baruch HaShem Yeshua, | <urn:uuid:589f5aab-a69a-494a-bec2-419f4ffe71f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/jan2012/michaelc118-1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948093 | 210 | 1.742188 | 2 |
NAPLES — President Barack Obama's re-election made the Affordable Care Act a reality and now Florida health-care providers, insurers and businesses must work toward complying with the law.
However, there's still a chance budget talks with Congress could end in a scaled-back plan.
Under the 2010 law, affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, states can decide whether to expand Medicaid programs to reduce the number of uninsured residents. Other residents will be able to take advantage of insurance exchanges, a marketplace for those who need insurance to comparison shop for benefits that go into effect in January 2014.
States have until Nov. 16 to detail how they will comply.
Florida is among 10 states that have rejected the exchanges. As a result, the federal government would set up the exchanges — or create a partnership with the state.
Gov. Rick Scott didn't back down from his stance this past week, maintaining the overhaul and Medicaid expansion would be too costly to carry out and would hurt businesses by raising costs.
"Just saying 'no' is not an answer," Scott said Friday. "We need to focus on how Obamacare affects each of our families. Will it increase the cost of health care for our families? Will it impact the quality of health care for our families? Will it impact Floridians' access to our health-care system?
"I am looking forward to working with legislators and others on specific ways to address these issues," he added. "On Obamacare, I am concerned about how it affects patients, jobs and taxes on Floridians. The problem we need to address is why health care costs so much for our families."
Republican congressmen hope to tweak the law.
"Procedurally, we're going to have to see what happens with Obamacare," said newly elected GOP U.S. Rep. Trey Radel of Fort Myers. "I am staunchly against it. I think the decision between a doctor and patient should be between a doctor and patient and not have the federal government involved."
More than 30 million uninsured people are expected to gain coverage, about half through exchanges and many will receive government help to pay those premiums. The rest, mainly low-income adults without children at home, will be covered by Medicaid.
Although the federal government will pay nearly all the additional Medicaid costs, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to opt out of the expansion. That, added to Republican opposition, has led to uncertainty over how the law will be carried out.
"I think more and more Democrats, specifically in the Senate, are going to see the negative impact of Obamacare and there are areas we can work on together, at the minimum, to repeal parts of it," Radel said, adding that the effects of "Obamacare" already are being felt here.
"Darden Restaurants, which has many locations here in Southwest Florida, will be making substantial moves to put a large amount of their full-time staff on part-time hours as a direct consequence of Obamacare," Radel said.
Orlando-based Darden Restaurants operates eight chains, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Seasons 52 and The Capital Grille. Last week, Papa John's Pizza also said it would have to cut employee hours and raise the cost of pizzas.
U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who represents eastern Collier and parts of the east coast, has vowed to repeal the law. He couldn't be reached for additional comment after the election. In the past, he's called it a "burdensome new tax" that will prompt "skyrocketing" health care costs.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat just elected to a third term, blamed much of the opposition on a lack of understanding.
"I think you will see the health-care reform law to continue to be implemented and as a result, as people start to understand what it is, then I think you will see the wide acceptance of the health-care law," Nelson said.
He disputed claims it would raise costs, noting emergency room costs for low-income patients, which now are passed on to others, would be covered.
Some local clinics already have moved ahead after receiving Affordable Care Act dollars. In April, the nonprofit Family Health Centers, a federally funded clinic, was awarded $3.75 million to build a clinic on 5 acres in Estero, a plan that complies with the government's goal of ensuring primary-care clinics play a bigger role in health-care reform.
Richard Akin, president and chief executive officer of Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida, which provides dental and clinic-based health care for Collier County's needy children and women, said the law means fewer people will have commercial insurance and more will be on Medicaid.
"More are going to be our patients," Akin said. "In the short haul, this is not going to have an impact on our outpatient care. In the long-term, we're going to have to look at it."
NCH Healthcare System, Lee Memorial Health Care System and Physicians Regional Health Care System don't anticipate many changes.
"Our policies conform to current laws and are similar to what the U.S. Treasury Department is proposing under a provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which recently survived a Supreme Court ruling," said Physicians Regional Health Care System CEO Todd Lupton, noting that it's always had to remain quality conscious and efficient.
Nancy Lascheid, a founder of Neighborhood Health Clinic in Naples, said CEO Nina Gray scrutinized the law to find gaps in coverage — patients who would be neglected. Among the coverage gaps are five chronic diseases that are labor intensive for health-care practitioners and costly — diabetes, heart disease, asthma, hypertension and cancer.
"There's a lot of gray areas in the bill and both parties see the good in it," Lascheid said. "But there are a lot of gaps."
The clinic provides care to low-income, working, uninsured county residents who are 150 percent below federal poverty level. For one person, that's $16,752; for a family of four, $34,572. (Under the law, anyone under age 65 with income below 133 percent of the poverty level will be eligible for Medicaid.)
Lascheid said another gap is the difficulty the IRS will have tracking those who aren't insured to fine them.
"There's a lot of unknowns," she said. "A lot will depend on what happens at the state level. I think everyone was waiting until the election was over and now we're going to get serious."
__ Staff writer Jenna Buzzacco and The Associated Press contributed to this report
To learn more about how the Affordable Care Act affects you, go here: http://bit.ly/GJQfhm | <urn:uuid:38eab803-3a6a-4fc0-843d-076a3dc78ee6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/nov/12/regions-clinics-lawmakers-begin-preparing-for-of/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974617 | 1,410 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Jack Hawkins had a massive physique, a deliberate
hesitating delivery of his gravelly voice and a curious believability
that meant when he was playing a role – you really believed that
he WAS that character. Perhaps this is because he was so typically English
in some many regards that when it came to playing a straight laced major
or a corvette Captain – he just easily fitted in.
on the 14th September 1910 in London, Hawkins scored his first film
role in 1921 in 'The Four Just Men' and made his theatrical debut in
London at age 12, playing the elf king in 'Where the Rainbow Ends'.
After his first film, 1930's 'Birds of Prey', Hawkins languished for
several years in secondary roles before achieving minor stardom by the
end of that decade.
came the war and Hawkins enlisted into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and
was soon promoted to the rank of Captain. Whilst serving with the British
army in India he was seconded to ENSA, a military entertainment unit,
where he finished his military service in Asia. In his memoirs, Hawkins
vividly recalls a note he discovered on his desk, after he had withdrawn
from a play which had been running for a while,
must protest in the strongest possible terms of your withdrawal of the
play 'Company Love in a Mist' and insist on its immediate return’
notes that it was not the letter that caught his eye but the signature;
General William Slim (Commander - South East Asia).
the war Hawkins began his most successful period starring 'The Cruel
Sea', the top grossing film of 1953. As Commander Ericson, Hawkins's
roughly hewn face sheds silent tears at the loss of the drifting British
crewmen, blown up by his decision to depth-charge a suspected submarine.
It was a great film and really introduced two other British actors at
the time Denholm Elliott and Donald Sinden.
was the gruffly humane teacher of deaf children in 'Mandy', and the
paternalistic Merton in 'The Intruder' (1953). Then came one of this
finest roles played Major Warden (back in south east asia where he served
13 years earlier), the passionate and fervent demolition expert of The
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). His counterparts were Alec Guinness
and William Holden and unfortunately he missed the BAFTA for best supporting
actor. Sir Alec picked up the 'Best Actor' award on both sides of the
Atlantic. His interaction with Holden will be what I remember him best
for in the film. Holdens character is cynical and war weary 'good for
nothing' and whenever Hawkins is showing stiff upper lip, he never fails
to fit some sarcasm into the dialogue, such as his retort,
show, jolly jolly good show…good hunting’
Hawkins very proper 'get the job done' British attitude. | <urn:uuid:1377917e-97ef-4c76-b414-9ee9e68738d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britishcinemagreats.com/Actors_page/jack_hawkins/jack_hawkins_page_1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961184 | 622 | 1.734375 | 2 |
STAR CITY, Russia — Space passenger Greg Olsen may be paying $20 million for a ride to the international space station next month, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get out of doing the chores in orbit.
Olsen will be expected to help out with cleaning up the place or preparing meals, just like any crew member, said NASA astronaut Bill McArthur, who will be accompanying Olsen on a Russian Soyuz craft to take command of the space station.
“Greg really is a full member of the crew,” McArthur told MSNBC.com during a Tuesday news conference at the Russian cosmonaut training center here. “We look at who is busy with tasks, and who has free time that’s convenient. And if I fall in that situation, then I’m the one to make lunch.”
Tuesday’s session with Olsen, McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev was the latest press event in a sort of farewell tour for the departing Soyuz crew. The three men are due to go into quarantine on Sunday, in preparation for the Oct. 1 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
McArthur and Tokarev are due to relieve the station’s current long-term occupants, Russia’s Sergei Krikalev and NASA’s John Phillips, and begin a six-month tour of duty on the station. Olsen, however, will come back down to Earth with Krikalev and Phillips after a week on the orbital outpost.
Olsen, a 60-year-old New Jersey inventor/entrepreneur, is following in the footsteps of California millionaire Dennis Tito and South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth — paying the Russians an eight-figure sum for months of cosmonaut training and the round trip to the space station. The Russians make such private-passenger seats available to raise money for their space program.
"I can guarantee that every cent from Gregory Olsen goes back into the federal space program," said Alexei Krasnov, director of manned spaceflight programs for Russia's Federal Space Agency.
More than a 'space tourist'?
Olsen made his fortune in fiber-optics communications and infrared imaging. He is the founder and current chairman of the board at New Jersey-based Sensors Unlimited, which is due to be purchased for $60 million by Goodrich Corp. by the end of the year.
Olsen dislikes the term “space tourist” and prefers to be called a private space researcher. He told reporters that his scientific background, which includes a Ph.D. in materials science, was one of the motivating factors for his trip.
“I'm a scientist in physics and electrical engineering, so space obviously is a very big interest,” he said.
In fact, one of Olsen’s infrared imagers was used during this summer’s Discovery mission to inspect the shuttle’s protective skin for damage.
In contrast with the years of training that professional astronauts go through, Olsen has trained for only six months at Star City. When asked why he was taking such a big risk on spaceflight with such limited training, Olsen replied, “I don’t view it as a risk at all. It’s a very exciting experience. I’ve got one of the best crews there ever were. … It’s been a privilege for me to train with them.”
His crewmates returned the compliment.
“He’s never been a pilot, but the fact that he’s an engineer brings a lot to our team,” Tokarev said.
“He has proven to be a tremendous asset in our training,” McArthur said. “He isn’t trained differently. He certainly has less extensive training than Valery and I have. But at the same time, in our simulations … we’ve found that having a third set of hands to perform various tasks truly makes us significantly more effective. We’re really looking forward to having Greg in space with us.”
Medical problem caused delays
Olsen actually began training more than a year ago, but Russian doctors disqualified him shortly after he started because "something turned up in a test," he told MSNBC.com. Although Olsen has not publicized the precise nature of the medical condition, he said it faded away by itself, only three months after he went back home. Follow-up tests persuaded the Russian medical team to let him resume training in May, after a gap of nearly a year.
He said about 35 friends and family members, including his 4 1/2-year-old grandson, are due to attend the launch at Baikonur. It will take almost two days for the Soyuz to reach the space station, orbiting 225 miles (350 kilometers) above the earth.
Once he gets there, Olsen doesn’t intend to just sit around and just look out the window —although that is part of the appeal of the voyage. He’s already set up to participate in three biological experiments for the European Space Agency, focusing on bacteria growth, lower back pain and how spaceflight upsets the vestibular system of the inner ear. He'll also be using video and still cameras to record the sights, and participate in ham-radio and video downlinks.
What’s more, he still hopes to bring up a spectrometer built by students at the University of Virginia, with components from his own company. The spectrometer hasn’t yet been cleared for takeoff, due to U.S. export restrictions. If officials can cut through the red tape by launch time, Olsen would use the instrument to analyze moisture levels in vegetation on Earth as well as the chemical content of clouds.
“If I’m lucky, I’ll have a lot to do,” Olsen told reporters.
Does astronaut have a return ticket?
McArthur and NASA, meanwhile, have their own red tape to deal with: Russia’s agreement to provide free rides to U.S. astronauts is due to lapse after next month’s launch, but currently, the Iran Nonproliferation Act would bar NASA from paying the Russians for future flights on Soyuz craft.
To get around the problem, NASA plans to bring McArthur back to Earth on a space shuttle next spring, but if future flights are delayed due to Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath or other problems, he could find himself without a shuttle ride.
Negotiations over the issue are continuing, and there have been some hints that provisions of the act may be waived to let NASA purchase seats on future Soyuz craft.
Russian officials were repeatedly asked whether there was a chance that McArthur could be marooned aboard the station when his six-month stint was over, but Nikolai Sevastianov, head of the Energia rocket company that makes the Soyuz spaceships, brushed off such concerns.
“Of course he’ll come back on the Soyuz if the shuttle is not ready,” he said.
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints | <urn:uuid:a96d5ede-36cf-425a-8dc9-b036fc92f108> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9323509/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961916 | 1,492 | 1.789063 | 2 |
I don't have a strong opinion on the matter. Skimming the article represents the best information I've received on the subject to date.
Cool. I’d recommend that you do some more research if you are interested.
How is that a relevant question?
it would tell me how familiar you are with the claims in question.
And that's bad too.
Usually when I see the word "since" it is a premise indicator, meaning that somewhere nearby in the argument this point has been established, but that's not the case here. Why is that?
Well, lorax, can you show me contemporary evidence for JC? If you can’t, then the point has been established. Christians have been trying to find this evidence for centuries and they have nothing.
Okay, so your argument here relies on another argument from another thread.
Here's what I'm confused about: It seems that you are not only resting your major premise, but your entire argument on content from a previous thread. What does this thread contribute to the argument?
Yes, the information has been presented on another thread. That doesn’t invalidate it does it? This thread was started with a question on attempts to “harmonize” the various conflicting claims in the gospels by Christians attempting to use Roman history and retconning their myth to fit this history. There have been many books and websites about the problems with claiming that Jesus Christ actually existed, from wiki article compilations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus
to critiques of Christian books claiming that JC existed: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/christianity/historicity.html http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/christianity/craig.html
Books on how the bible is not to be trusted: http://www.bartdehrman.com/
These should give you a good start on the debate and the facts presented.
I can't say there is, no
Okay, for someone who seems to think that my claims are wrong, you seem rather disinterested in any information to correct that impression.
Is there also no record of Pilate? What head of a roman province is supposed by the bible who is not in evidence?
Hatter is right. There is the Pilate Stone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilate_Stone
However, using this as evidence for the existence of a man/god is rather like saying that since New York City is mentioned in a Spiderman comic book, that means that Spidey exists. The Illiad mentions people and places that exist, does that mean that Athena and Zeus do also?
That question is confusing to me. Do I think a roman would have noticed a legion? or would have noticed a crowd of peasants? I suppose most Romans would notice either with the former obviously much more likely to be recorded historically.
I am asking if you think that the occupying Romans would have noticed a gathering of thousands of people just outside of Jerusalem, in a province that had been racked with rebellion. The term “zealot” comes from this period, when there were Jews who were intent on getting rid of the Roman occupation and seemed ot have used terroristic methods.
What percent of all roman historical records that were written to we still have?
Hard to tell since we don’t know how much there was in the first place. Could there still be records found that say “Hey, we saw JC doing miracles and when we killed him there were dead people walking the streets”? Sure but Christians have been looking for 2000+ years now. With such dramatic and ostensibly wide spread phenomena, why nothing? No contemporary culture in the area the eastern Mediterreanan reports the events that the bible claims as true. No darkening of the sun or earthquake at the cruxifiction, no gatherings of thousands of people, no miracles noted, no exodus from Egypt, no flood, etc.
BTW, here’s a good site for dates and other info on early Christian writings: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ | <urn:uuid:fc8a0b42-8253-4d8e-8ac1-ed6c5162382f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forums/index.php/topic,20869.msg475116.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9699 | 887 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A bill filed by State Sen. Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) on Jan. 17 would allow concealed handgun license holders to carry firearms on campus. We asked UT students if they would feel safer if such a bill were passed.
For me personally, it’d make me feel less safe, just in the sense that I think the law would be too general by letting everybody carry a concealed weapon. Personally, I would prefer something where certain people could carry concealed weapons on campus, just because any random guy could walk up on the street with a gun, in that case, and have no repercussions for that action.
DT: What types of people did you have in mind?
Well, I mean, obviously, police. I don’t know, I feel that there would have to be more legislation for the background of people that have guns, and maybe creating different classes of where you can have your gun. That way, personally, you’re not taking away any [Second] Amendment rights.
Computer science senior from Elkhorn, Wisconsin
Less safe. I actually know cases where innocent people died because of shoot-outs, like lost bullets. So suppose that the guns are used to protect someone else — that would cause a shoot-out. If there’s a shoot-out, there’s a risk that I will get shot by mistake. So that actually makes me feel less secure.
Computer science senior from Pachuca, Mexico
In my personal opinion, I feel like it would make me safer that law-abiding people who have passed their examinations and who have been legally licensed to operate firearms — to own and carry their firearms by the government — are allowed to do so everywhere, including college campuses. It would definitely make us safer, because, in the wake of all these school shootings that have happened, especially the ones in Houston, Virginia Tech, all those — they’ve all happened in places that were gun-free zones at the time. So I feel like if somebody’s going to come in and start shooting people, they’re not going to respect whether guns are allowed there or not. So I’d rather the opportunity for people who are trained to use their weapons to be allowed to have that protection in case of such an emergency, and have it on hand so that they’re able to exercise that right.
Asian studies and journalism senior from Ossining, NY
Oh, no, I would not feel safer. Because, for example, someone turns out to be — sorry to say — a little bit crazy, like in just one split second, he gets angry, he could shoot someone. I would not agree with that. It could kill many people for no reason.
Chemistry junior from Amioun, Lebanon
I would actually feel less safe, just because if everybody’s going to be holding a weapon on them, who knows what type of motive they actually have for holding that. So, it could be bad, it could be good — nobody knows — but I’d rather not take that risk.
Communication sciences and disorders junior from Alice
Probably less safe. It’s somewhat disconcerting to know that anybody can be carrying a firearm on campus. They’d have to be licensed, I’m sure, but the licensing process is not nearly as rigorous as I would like it to be, at the same time. I feel like, if you should be able to bring a firearm on campus, you should probably have to go through a psych evaluation of some sort.
Classical archaeology, ancient history, and English junior from Dallas
Definitely less safe. I mean, I know the whole issue with guns has been a big thing, especially in Texas, but I’ve just never believed in owning firearms. I’m just one of those people who just doesn’t believe in them. So, definitely I would feel less safe. I mean, there was just that recent shooting in that community college in Houston, right? There’s no reason to bring them on campus, so I don’t see the point in carrying one around.
Nutrition junior from Austin
Less safe. Well, I guess, it’s really because I come from a country where weapons aren’t that common. And, well, looking at the statistics, more guns lead to more gun violence, so I don’t think that giving people guns will make it any safer for the rest of us. So, yeah, I’m generally pretty much against guns. I think only policemen, military and maybe licensed hunters should carry them.
American studies senior from Wuerzburg, Germany | <urn:uuid:68e74c56-1eb5-461f-be42-e128976f7202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytexanonline.com/opinion/2013/01/24/we-asked-guns-on-campus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9737 | 977 | 1.796875 | 2 |
When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Spider therapy helps improve quality of life
8:40am Thursday 17th May 2012 in Voluntary
This week is Cerebral Palsy Awareness (May 12-19) and children’s disability charity Footsteps Foundation celebrated by throwing open its doors and hosting an Open Day at the Footsteps Centre in Dorchester-on-Thames.
It was an opportunity for people to learn more about the charity and see the ‘Spider’ in action — a specialist piece of equipment used to develop the physical abilities of a disabled child. The Footsteps Centre is the only place in the UK to use ‘Spider’ therapy in this unique way.
Pip, founder of Footsteps Foundation said: “More families are needing the financial assistance of Footsteps Foundation as they cannot afford ongoing physiotherapy. We want to improve the quality of life for disabled children and we hope that the Oxfordshire community will come together to help make this happen.”
At the Open Day, the charity launched its own campaign ‘Footsteps Cerebral Palsy Awareness Week’ to appeal to people in Oxfordshire to come together and help raise awareness and funds for locals to by donating an hour of their salary. All proceeds will help disabled children to reach their full potential through the Footsteps physiotherapy programme.
The charity is also selling raffle tickets throughout the summer for the chance to win some great prizes including dinner, bed & breakfast at The White Hart Hotel, an M&S hamper worth £100 and a magnum of champagne among many other prizes.
Footsteps Foundation has various volunteering opportunities available including positions on the fundraising committee and support at events.
To get involved in Footsteps Cerebral Palsy Awareness Week or for more information about volunteering with the charity, please contact Clare at [email protected] or call 01865 340376. | <urn:uuid:975ba9ff-7d74-4b1e-842a-bb9aec0bd1fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisureold/volvoice/9699838.Spider_therapy_helps_improve_quality_of_life/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932708 | 416 | 1.78125 | 2 |
October 7, 2009
Geneva, campaign headquarters, October 7, 2009—A week since the campaign was launched, well over 7,000 e-mails have been sent to the drug companies by supporters from Japan to Mexico, Myanmar to Burkina Faso. There is relief, too, at campaign headquarters that it has come together and gone so smoothly so far.
"With ever-higher medicine costs, we need new ideas and fast if we are to continue to be able to treat people living with HIV/AIDS, let alone increase treatment for millions in need. MSF is 100 percent behind this patent pool initiative and we will work with others with all our might to give it the support it needs to get off the ground. Please add your voice to ours."
—Dr Christophe Fournier, President, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
The campaign is being rolled out country by country and we’re particularly looking forward to the launch in Switzerland later this month when we’re promised that a large inflatable pill will be symbolically dropped into Lake Geneva. We’ll upload some photos when it happens.
The drug companies’ response
Early days yet, but the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies told reporters this week that drug prices aren’t the issue—rather it’s the lack of medical doctors in developing countries that is blocking treatment.
Patent pool myth-buster
© 2013 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) | <urn:uuid:7e9fe3ff-5590-4a98-843b-24bd4bb25727> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article_print.cfm?id=3993 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935248 | 318 | 1.539063 | 2 |
How many times have you ignored your own gut instincts? You go forward with something even though a niggling little part of your brain is telling you that something is wrong.
Then when things do go wrong, as your subconscious knew it would, the full force of your entire being regurgitates up a big fat "I knew it!"
Your heart's been broken, your money's been stolen, or your hopes have been dashed in some unforgivable way. The minute you encounter concrete proof that your gut was correct, you wonder why you ever doubted yourself in the first place.
It's been said that your intuition is the sum of all your senses. It's your brain working overtime while you're not looking.
Here's what happens: we're exposed to millions of messages every day. We can't consciously process them all, so our subconscious mind scans them, trying to figure out what's important and what's not. Your gray matter is fermenting all the factoids while you're worrying about other details.
That's why the moment you get confirmation of your instincts, your brain spits out the movie flashback version of all the bits of information it's collected in the ugly moment of truth when all the signs add up.
Many crime victims will claim they had a bad feeling beforehand. Their subconscious processed the averted eyes, shuffling feet, or anxious glance of the would-be perpetrator, but they overrode their instincts and paid the price.
The same thing happens in less dangerous situations, or at least less physically dangerous situations, the bad performance review from the boss who never made eye contact or overhearing ugly words from somebody who always rubbed you the wrong way. We've all had the experience of wishing we'd paid more attention to our own intuition.
Your gut knows how to make good decisions. Yet we often feel safer relying on logic or the opinions of other people, rather than letting our intestines make the call.
So how do you learn to trust your instincts? Some of it comes with age and experience. Prove yourself right a few times and you'll feel more confident about the value of intuition as a decision-making tool.
One method that works is to consciously separate the fact from emotion. If you have a bad feeling about something, it's OK to ignore the facts and just pay attention to how you feel. Women in particular are often very adept at picking up on subtle emotional cues.
One of my favorite gurus, money expert Dave Ramsey, says to men: If you meet with a financial planner and your wife says, "I don't like him," she doesn't have to give you a logical reason. Leave immediately. Don't hire the person. Ramsey says that women are processing things at a different level. They pick up on subtle cues that they may not be able to explain, but their intuition is usually right.
It's hard to break through the clutter and capture the real wisdom buried deep down inside. We learn to ignore our feelings because it's more acceptable to go with the status quo. But how many times have you gotten yourself in trouble because you ignored the bad vibes and second-guessed your own opinion?
Whether you believe it's a scientific sixth sense or a mystical connection to the divine, every person alive has the power of intuition.
All you have to do is quiet your mind and pay attention to your own inner knowing.
Lisa Earle McLeod is the author of "The Triangle of Truth," a Washington Post "Top Five Book for Leaders." | <urn:uuid:b9ebd16d-a53a-4efb-836f-a4c820b4393c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2012/jul/20/mcleod-i-knew-it-i-knew-it/?community | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962198 | 721 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Parks and recreation planners in Baraboo are exploring a plan to turn an old pumphouse along the Baraboo River into a stop on the U.S. Bicycle Route System.
An interstate system for bicyclists, the USBS is being developed by the Adventure Cycling Association and state transportation departments. The Baraboo link would be part of the route from Madison to Reedsburg, according to the report from the Baraboo News Republic.
An advantage in developing Bicycle Route 30 is that there are existing bike-accessible trails along about 75 percent of the propose route, according to Robbie Webber, a biking educator from Madison.
One proposed path for BR 30 through the area enters Sauk County at Sauk City and follows county roads north of the village to Reedsburg. Bikers on that route can take advantage of the paved bike path along Highway 12 for much of their travel, Webber said.
Another route brings riders across the Merrimac Ferry and then north to Baraboo before traveling on to Reedsburg.
Webber said she believes the possible route through Baraboo has advantages over the one that goes through Sauk City.
"You get to Baraboo there’s a lot of services, you can get food, there’s a bike shop, there’s a hotel," she said. "It’s a good destination for various tourist attractions." | <urn:uuid:f2d8969c-1d7c-449d-9f84-de2072be871c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silentsports.net/blogs/124651384.html?tag=running | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954534 | 292 | 1.585938 | 2 |
This grant, which builds on a previous NCIIA grant funding student technology projects in Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, seeks to round out the program by adding two major components: 1) the inclusion of design students and mentors on E-Teams and funds for creating industry-grade prototypes, and 2) giving student teams access to incremental seed funding.
Northeastern will work in collaboration with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Students from the Mass Art Product Development Lab will be integrated into Northeastern’s I-Cubator teams. Based on student team investment pitches, teams will be given the opportunity to raise funds of up to $3,000, with a strategic focus on design as a key project component. At the end of the one-year program, projects may then be commercialized, returned to the I-Cubator for a second year, or terminated.
Started a new monthly entrepreneurship speaker series.
Roland is a graduate student in the School of Technological Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. He holds a BS/BA in Biology and Business Administration from Northeastern University as well. Prior to coming to Northeastern University, he attended Bristol Community College in Fall River where he founded the first Science club to promote science awareness on campus. The club also organized science fares, inviting and integrating initiatives from local schools. His entrepreneurial ability started at age 17 when he co founded, Chapman Biomedical, a sales and distribution network of generic medicine to rural clinics and hospitals in Cameroon, W. Africa. He acclaims himself as a youth champion; with a strong believe that today’s challenges can be collectively transformed by the collaboration of youth across the globe.
When not in class, he spends time working for Youth Action Africa, a nonprofit organization he founded with a mission to seek innovative ways to alleviate Africa’s myriad crises of health and poverty. He also enjoys travelling and interacting with diverse populations. This has rewarded him with the knowledge of speaking up to 7 languages. Besides traveling, Roland enjoys playing soccer, ping pong and being an apprentice at a local golf course.
Drawing inspirations from Peter Drucker’s assertion that, ‘Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth’, and technology being the catalyst to bond both concepts, entrepreneurs can provide new approaches needed to hasten the process of development and well being of the entire nation.
By combining innovative ideas from individuals and investments from public, private, and civil society organizations, such entrepreneurs can guide complex systems and institutions toward their goals. As a student ambassador for NCIIA, I strive to create a system that will ignite innovative ideas from all disciplines to provide tentative solutions to resolving complex global issues.
In 2003, a NCIIA Course and Program grant provided Northeastern with the opportunity to redesign and restructure its entrepreneurial studies curriculum to respond to business and engineering faculty assessment. The assessment was instrumental in the formation of the School of Technological Entrepreneurship (STE), which integrates students from business, engineering, industrial design, and computer science in cross-discipline teams for innovation and enhanced learning. However, industrial and engineering design instruction is not fully integrated into the curriculum, and students may not collaborate on this critical aspect of product development until after graduation, when they are working in a commercial firm. This grant intends to fill the gap by developing a new curriculum that creates a cross-institutional collaboration with the Massachusetts College of Art.
The new curriculum will integrate the instruction of engineering and industrial design functions in two shared courses with MassArt, Introduction to Product Design and Capstone Product Design. In Introduction to Product Design, NU engineering design students and MassArt industrial design students will attend two lectures weekly and gain an appreciation of the industrial and engineering design tasks that must be performed concurrently during the development of a successful product. In the Capstone Product Design course, engineering and industrial design students will collaborate to produce a solution to a technical product need from problem analysis through prototype fabrication. Students will form a minimum of six teams, and will work with faculty mentors and alumni entrepreneurs.
This grant is helping to create a course focusing on new product development within early-stage entrepreneurial firms at Northeastern's School of Technological Entrepreneurship. The basis for course instruction lies in, first, focusing on team formation, market planning, and early product concept definition, and second, on product selection and planning methodology. The course is expanding on a previous NCIIA Course & Program grant, which funded a collaborative effort between Mass Art and Northeastern, resulting in conceptual product designs for the Dell Computer ReGeneration green design competition. Student teams will be made up of members from Northeastern and Mass Art.
The Digital Maze (DM) is a software game that challenges students with multiple choice questions in order to discover the maze exit. DM can be used in class or for homework and can be applied to disciplines as diverse as medicine, law and science. The team sees the game as a textbook supplement targeted to college professors, textbook authors and academic publishers.
The team believes that current games rely too heavily on repetition and memorization, while DM relies on a more cognitive learning process, creating a more intense gaming environment.
This project supports the integration of E-Team development into an existing course in the Integrated Teaching and Learning Lab (ITLL), a progressive, high profile program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The course currently requires students to complete group work for clients; the focus of this project is the development of more entrepreneurship-related content and a greater focus on commercialization within the course.
In GE 1103 Engineering Design, first-year students work in teams of three or four on design practice modules that incorporate a broad range of engineering disciplines to develop solutions to real problems. Problems addressed in the course include humanitarian demining in third world countries, increased ozone in the troposphere, and the multiple problems experienced by refugees in troubled areas like Goma, Zaire.
The class serves several functions: first, it introduces students to the different disciplines within engineering; second, it helps students gain an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of engineering problem-solving; third, the class provides students with the opportunity to address a range of valuable problems; and fourth, it allows the faculty to integrate their personal experiences and expertise with a set of core topics in engineering and design. The course integrates with a campus-wide E-Team recruiting effort throughout the school's Entrepreneurship Program.
The Project on the History of Black Writing E-Team is developing a omprehensive bibliographic database of African-American novels in an interactive learning environment on CD-ROM and, by license, on the internet. A prototype CD-ROM is under development that includes author biographies, full texts of novels, photographs, pointers to critical sources and advanced search tools. Much of the literature on the CD-ROM is now out-of-print, making this a valuable resource. The team intends to develop a range of indexed bibliographic offerings in an electronic format for distribution to scholars and libraries worldwide. Initial market surveys indicated substantial interest in the product among academic and municipal libraries.
Students and faculty from Northeastern University, the University of Virginia, and James Madison University collaborate on different aspects of the project, calling on the strengths of each institution, in the first virtual E-Team. The content is provided by NEU, the programming by UVA and JMU.
This E-Team joined the Project on the History of Black Writing eleven years after it was founded by the Cooperative Research Network in Black Studies. Since 1984 the Cooperative has compiled an extensive bibliography of writing by African-Americans in the last century and a half, including over 2,000 records. The work of the E-Team makes this previously inaccessible bibliographic resource available to a wider audience.
The Virtual Security Research (VSR) E-Team recognized a lack in affordable and creative security systems for the Internet. To fill the gap, the team evaluated existing software solutions and made improvements in usability, user interface, and security.
The team received second prize for their business plan in Northeastern University's $60k business plan competition. They then founded Virtual Security Research in 1998, and have since been focused on providing quality network and application security consulting services. They have clients in the financial services and commercial software sectors | <urn:uuid:52597867-bab8-4c5d-8947-1db2fbcf951f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nciia.org/taxonomy/term/191 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932171 | 1,717 | 1.6875 | 2 |
TV30 offering summer camp in video productionTri-Valley TV Community Television is offering a summer camp for middle and high school students who are considering a career in video production.
Training open to middle, high school students
The 20-hour TV day camp includes an introduction to studio production, field production, writing, producing and digital video editing. Participants will work within a group to produce a TV program.
Two sessions will be offered to campers with the first taking place from June 13-17 and the second from Aug. 8-12. The camp runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily in each session. The fee is $495 and registration is limited. The camp sessions were sold out well in advance in the last two years they have been held.
For the past two years, students have produced one-hour specials that aired on TV30 titled "Tri-Valley Youth View."
"Students not only had the opportunity to work with our staff at a real television station, but interviewed two mayors, an up-and-coming rock band, the editor of the Pleasanton Weekly and others," said Melissa Tench-Stevens, executive director of Tri-Valley TV.
"We were fielding calls all year long from the positive buzz created by last year's camp, and this year's camp will be just as exciting," she added. "Our staff enjoys working with the students, and some of the students have gone on to working with us at the station. It is a win-win for all."
In addition to providing valuable hands-on experience in television production, Tri-Valley TV Camp will give students an overall picture of the production process, help prepare them for related courses in video, and provide an edge for their future in the television industry.
Experienced Media instructor Mitch Eason will be returning as camp director.
The camp is located at the Tri-Valley Community Television Studios of TV28, TV29 and TV30 on the grounds of the Pleasanton Unified School District, 4663 Bernal Ave., Suite B, in Pleasanton. For more information and to register, visit the Tri-Valley TV website at www.trivalleytv.org or phone the station at 462-3030. | <urn:uuid:74e6c4e5-b58d-4fbb-9d39-5b7e7b2929f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pleasantonweekly.com/story.php?story_id=8007 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962759 | 465 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Cooks who love Italian food must have great patience. They know it could be years before that spaghetti alla carbonara they had in a trattoria in Rome can be made properly in their own kitchens because they await the arrival of the essential guanciale. But, wait, you might be thinking, spaghetti alla carbonara is a staple on the menu of every Italian restaurant in the U.S., right? Isn’t it made with bacon and cream? Actually, no. Traditionally, it is not made with bacon or even pancetta (cured Italian pork belly). The real thing is made with guanciale (and god forbid, cream.) Luckily, guanciale, although difficult to procure, is not impossible to find.
What is guanciale? Very simply, it’s cured pork jowl, usually produced in Lazio, the Italian region of which Rome is the capital. Guanciale is not cheek, as some writers suggest, but jowl, the fleshy part under the lower jaw. Curiously, guanciale goes unmentioned in classic books on Italian cuisine, from Waverly Root to Elizabeth David to Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cook Book, but it is an ingredient intimately linked with the cooking of Lazio.
A labor-intensive process
The best-known locale for its production is the town of Amatrice, a community tucked into the hilly section of the province of Rieti, in the region of Lazio near Abruzzo. Here, guanciale is carefully cut and trimmed from the throat into a characteristic triangle shape. The jowl is salted for four or five days, washed and then partially dried. At this point, the jowl is seasoned with salt, very coarsely ground black pepper and sprinkled with dried chile. The jowl is placed in a curing room made of oak for one month at a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. After this period, the jowl is cured another two months in the open air, acquiring its distinctive smoky and slightly spicy taste. The finished guanciale is reddish and marbled white with fat.
Guanciale is the essential ingredient in four famous dishes of Lazio (also called Latium): spaghetti alla carbonara, pasta alla grícia, pasta all’amatriciana and spaghetti alla carrettiera.
The first, spaghetti alla carbonara, is probably the most famous. It is spaghetti tossed together with eggs and crispy cooked guanciale. It’s the eggs, not cream, which give it its creamy texture. The origin of carbonara is much discussed, yet no one really know because there are several competing origin stories and all are anecdotal.
The storied history of carbonara
First, although thought of as a typical Roman dish, the name is said to come from a dish made in the Appenine Mountains of the Abruzzo by woodcutters who made charcoal for fuel. They would cook the dish over a hardwood charcoal fire and use penne rather than spaghetti because it is easier to toss with the eggs and cheese. The second theory is the obvious one, given that the meaning of alla carbonara is “coal worker’s style.” This story holds that the dish was eaten by coal workers or that the abundant use of coarsely ground black pepper resembles coal flakes. Another story is that food shortages after the liberation of Rome in 1944 were so severe that Allied troops distributed military rations consisting of powdered egg and bacon which the local populace mixed with water to season the easily stored dried pasta.
There is also a theory that during World War II, middle-class Roman families escaped the oppressiveness of Nazi occupation by moving to Ciociaria, about halfway between Rome and Benevento. There they learned of a Neapolitan style pasta made with eggs, lard and pecorino cheese. They adopted the dish as their own, called it carbonara, and it became famous, piggybacking on the popularity of post-War Roman cooking thoughout Italy.
Another story suggests that La Carbonara, the famous restaurant in Rome’s Campo dei Fiori, was named after its specialty. Although the restaurant has been open since the early part of the 20th century,and does in fact have carbonara on its menu, the restaurant itself denies any such connection and says that the name came about for other reasons. A highly unlikely story told in Italy’s bestselling culinary bible, Il nuovo cucchiaio d’argento (translated recently into English as “The Silver Spoon”), is that the dish was originally made with black squid ink and acquired its name because it was as black as coal. The simplest story, and therefore the most likely (I subscribe to the principle of Occam’s razor here), is that the dish had always existed at the family level and in local osterie before traditional Roman cuisine got its stamp of fame.
Other famous guanciale dishes
But although carbonara is perhaps the best known of the four, guanciale plays an important role in three other famous dishes in Lazio. Pasta alla grícia is a dish of bucatini or spaghetti seasoned with guanciale and crumbled sausage. Simply add tomatoes and you have pasta all’amatriciana. (In a sense, grícia is amatriciana in bianco.) As Amatrice was once part of the Abruzzo, pasta all’amatriciana is often thought of a classic Abruzzese dish. The dish is also sometimes called spaghetti all’ amatriciana, which simply means “in the style of Amatrice.”
Spaghetti alla carrettiera (cart-driver’s sauce) is popular throughout Italy today, though it is made in a variety of styles and not necessarily solely with guanciale. (Some recipes call for tuna in oil and dried porcini mushrooms in addition to guanciale.) When it is made with guanciale, it is usually described as a dish from Lazio or Abruzzo. The pasta is tossed with a sauce made of ground meat cooked with red wine, onion and tomatoes and lightly seasoned with black pepper and chile. It got its name after World War II, when much of the local commerce in war-ravaged Italy had to be conducted by horse-drawn cart. The cart drivers, in the imagination of the populace, were robust good eaters who found their sustenance in the osterie and trattorie along these central Italian byways.
It’s definitely worth the effort to procure guanciale, if only to taste the flavor of spaghetti alla carbonara made the traditional way (recipe here). I think you’ll be surprised. Guanciale can be ordered via Zingerman’s, La Quercia, or Salumeria Italiana and is occasionally available at Whole Foods markets.
Zester Daily contributor Clifford A. Wright won the James Beard / KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year Award and the James Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food in 2000 for “A Mediterranean Feast.” His latest book is “Hot & Cheesy” (Wiley) about cooking with cheese.
Photos, from top: Spaghetti all carbonara. Credit: Clifford A. Wright; Sliced guanciale. | <urn:uuid:690bd20c-2d14-4003-8d1d-16098a06e8fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zesterdaily.com/cooking/what-is-guanciale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960396 | 1,547 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Texas State subscribes to the nationally recognized Human Subject protection training program offered by CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative). Curriculum content is provided by well-known experts and is updated regularly. The CITI program is available online 24 hours a day, and applicants can save their progress, log in and out of modules, and finish courses at their own pace.
The curriculum consists of a number of modules containing lessons and short multiple-choice quizzes. Content will vary somewhat between faculty level and student level courses, and between social and behavioral and biomedical modules.
Texas State subscribes to a number of courses used for various other training requirements through CITI. Because of this, IRB applicants must take care to register only for the required Basic Course in the protection of human subjects. Modules are customized for specific learner groups. Learners should choose the Basic Course.
1. It is very important to choose the correct learner group.
Students and faculty should NOT choose “Administration” or “Institutional Review Board” as their learner group.
Acceptable faculty (or staff) learner groups:
Biomedical Research Investigators
Social and Behavioral Research
Acceptable student learner groups:
Biomedical Research Medical Students
Social and Behavioral Research Students
2. The training program will ask you whether or not you have taken a previous training. First time applicants SHOULD ALWAYS ANSWER "I HAVE NOT TAKEN A PREVIOUS TRAINING." If you answer yes, you will be sent to the refresher training, which will not be accepted from first time applicants.
3. You should ignore the questions regarding animal use.
4. Answer the final question regarding RCR training with "Not at this time."
5. Always check to make sure you have successfully registered in the human subjects protection Basic Course for your learner group. Check the course title, your learner group, and finally, make sure that, as you move through the modules, the content refers to Human Subjects and IRBs. If it does not, you are in the wrong course and need to re-register.
(Note: CITI has announced plans to upgrade of their website sometime during Spring 2013. The details above may change at that time. The Office of Research Integrity & Compliance will alert users with updated information as soon as we are notified.)
Texas State University’s Assurance with the federal Office of Human Research Protections requires that the University provide an education program in Human Subjects Protection. Completion of the Basic Course is required for Texas State faculty and students submitting an application to the IRB, and for faculty supervising student applicants.
At any time learners can access their own password and log in ID and training records directly from CITI.
IRB applicants are now required to include CITI training completion dates in their Synopsis at the time of application to the IRB. Student applicants must also provide training completion dates of their supervising faculty.
If you have taken a comparable training elsewhere in the past three years, uploade a copy of your completion details in your IRB Synopsis. | <urn:uuid:af317482-2b82-432d-a631-9352989a635f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.txstate.edu/research/orc/IRB-Resources/Training.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934367 | 648 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By Jonathan Kimak
Like the majority of laptop owners, I want to be able to use my laptop absolutely everywhere I go. However, I’m not so sure I want to be able to use it while walking down the road blissfully unaware of that approaching pick-up truck headed right for me. But what do I know.
The people at Think Geek have created the Connect-A-Desk Laptop Holder that they sell for $40. It includes a laptop harness and a “desk” which is essentially a board fitted to the harness that allows you to stand and type with both hands instead of doing the awkward one hand holding the laptop and the other hand pecking away at the keys.
For the standing part the laptop desk looks OK and could be useful when you are in standing room only situations and need to take notes or see the latest videos from this year’s E3. But when the site suggests that you can walk around and type with this it makes me cringe at the catastrophes bound to happen. It’s already easy enough to get distracted with little cell phones, PDAs and mp3 players. A full sized laptop with DVD movies and games could have you successfully save your character by jumping over a dark chasm, while you fall down a real chasm. | <urn:uuid:aecedd6e-facc-41f0-b61d-0217447ba05b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohgizmo.com/2008/07/16/a-snugli-baby-carrier-for-your-laptop/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951908 | 269 | 1.695313 | 2 |
You’ve seen this right? Over 300,000,000 views - a number not to be confused with the population of the United States. An incredible feat if this were a product launch marketing campaign, a terrifying one if this were an incriminating video of a company manager. The risks social media pose to a company are on two levels - individual and company-wide. While many employees like to keep their personal social media accounts and posts separate from their career, the social network has proved it impossible to completely isolate the two. Social media policies should be in place for personal accounts as well as a companies’ official accounts. Policies should specify what employees need to be careful about, if and how they can use the company’s identity, news, and information, and how the company will enforce its policies. This policy should be especially ingrained in, if not written by, those handling the company’s social media accounts. They are essentially the face of the company, from a social network’s perspective, and their presence should be managed with that in mind. Companies also face risks not only in what they and their employees are saying online, but in what their customers are communicating. Reputation management is critical in this age of rapid information transmission, and knowing what is being said about your company in all corners of online media is important to minimizing risk.
The Paperless Rush
“Paperless” became a buzzword as far back as the ‘80s and though there are still millions of tons of trees being pulped each year, people are finally realizing the cost reductions in less paper and less storage in an office. The federal government, for example, plans on issuing benefits checks electronically this year, with a projected cost savings of $120 million. However, having a green, portable document management system can be too good to be true if proper data security precautions are not taken. Data stored digitally, especially in web-based platforms and/or “clouds” means the risk attached to that data increases exponentially with every data touch point. For both providers and customers, online banking and account management makes life easier, but with such sensitive information being transmitted, you’ve created a giant, blinking, bulls-eye, beckoning to every computer hacker with an Internet connection.
Along with the previously mentioned risks of data stored and accessible over the web, the trend towards storing all data, externally, in “clouds” adds its own risks. When data is no longer stored on your computer, device, or in-house, it can easily be “out of sight, out of mind.” It’s liberating to put data into a space with seemingly endless storage and minimal management requirements, via web mail, applications, software, etc. The problem is the responsibility of the data’s security is not eliminated but simply shifted - usually to an entity outside of your company’s walls. It’s imperative to ensure all data is backed up and know the path it takes from your device to occupy it’s eventual cloud service. It’s also essential to know who is accountable for the data at each point in that transmission process or it’s very possible no one will be.
As the percentage of Americans on smartphones creeps steadily towards the 50% mark, companies are racing to make their services and products mobile-friendly. Anyone who has tried to access a webpage on their smartphone knows we only wait up to about 60 seconds and if the data hasn’t loaded we are on to the next thing. This pressure is employing app developers around the world, and expanding Droid and Apple app stores at an alarming rate. The problem is when functionality, design, and cost-reduction take precedence over data security. Risk managers recently named mobile applications and devices as number one on their list of concerns for 2011. There is a tendency to connect networks, people, and media via an app without considering who is monitoring the data at each step. While app users may seem unconcerned, they will still be quick to blame the app developers and suppliers should any breech in data privacy or security occur.
I sincerely enjoy watching someone use Skype for the first time. It really is an incredible tool, connecting faces in real-time across oceans and continents, enabling group conferencing and calls to landlines and cell phones. Anyone who travels a lot can also appreciate how it enables you to continue working with those you depend on no matter where you are. But like the cloud, it’s easy to fall into the out of sight, out of mind routine when it comes to employees and information in different locales. An employee working from home may take every precaution they know of to back up and manage data securely, but ultimately the device they are working from is not under the carefully managed umbrella that is the company office building.
We’re pretty used to seeing updated unemployment statistics on the daily news by now. It’s also not as surprising as it used to be to learn that a friend or family member has lost a job. Companies are taking every measure possible to retain workers but in uncertain economic climates, disgruntled employees, whether fired or watching their coworkers being fired, are plentiful. Bonuses and pay raises on average across all industries have decreased since 2009, and even as businesses have been getting back on their feet this year, managing employee morale has remained on the priority list. Combine unhappy employees with a sense of entitlement and power to company data and information and you get, you guessed it, data security risk. With workforces slimming and changing to manage expenses and company vitality, keeping up with which employees have access to what data is critical to risk and reputation management.
Updates, updates, updates
Seems like a new iPhone comes out every week, huh? New browsers options, new software versions, new applications, new and improved hardware. Thoroughly cleaning out the old is just as essential as revitalizing with the new, because conflicting versions of applications, anti-virus software, hardware with inferior capabilities etc. can keep your operating system from running smoothly and doing the best at whatever you have employed those applications and devices to do. And every new application or program installed, especially since these days most connect to the Internet for at least one function, is another route through which destructive malware can enter your system. Reminding employees not to approve every pop-up in their new Chrome browser, to not put their information in forms without a security certification or the latest spyware, or to properly dispose of old devices, is just as essential as monitoring company-wide equipment and program usage.
Technology is transforming our world faster than we ever thought possible. While we ride the wave and reap the benefits, it’s imperative to be watching for the consequences and monitoring the risks. What other technology trends are causing heightened levels of risk management for your company? Do you see any of the above becoming more or less of a risk as time goes by? Share your thoughts below. | <urn:uuid:6b5fdddc-b051-44c9-ba34-f589cdcb565c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbknowledge.com/blog/2011/6/22/what-technology-trends-are-having-a-huge-impact-on-risk-mana.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952815 | 1,432 | 1.789063 | 2 |
City Lit Theater and the American Library Association have teamed together for the past five years to present readings from each year’s list of most frequently challenged books. Banned Books Week has been held during the last week of September since 1982.
City Lit hosted its fifth annual The Art of Adaptation, a festival of stage adaptations of non-dramatic literature, on June 29, 30 and July 1, 2012. Click More Info to find out how to submit for 2013's festival!
City Lit's newly developed Real Live Literature Program presented a free interactive reading of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny in celebration of Easter. Look back next year for similar events around Easter weekend. | <urn:uuid:4988905a-7f82-4d60-8404-4ee864d3d1af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citylit.org/NewsandEvents.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955326 | 142 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Welcome to the website for the community of Offham, Hamsey and Cooksbridge
We hope you enjoy using our community website.Click the buttons on the left to link onto activities within the parish. There has been some confusion regarding " Logging on" to the parish website.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO LOG ON TO ACCESS PARISH NEWS AND INFORMATION.
GO STRAIGHT TO THE GREEN BOXES ON THE LEFT TO ACCESS THE INFORMATION YOU REQUIRE.
However,if you reside in the parish or have a strong connection to it and wish to place a small-ad, post your club meeting date, or suggest a new community initiative, you need to be given security clearance via a password.
This prevents any unauthorised person putting undesirable information on the website.This is a simple and confidential process. See bottom of page for details.
If you've got news to share, we'd welcome your input!
About our parish
The parish of Hamsey stretches from the River Ouse in the east to Mount Harry in the west, from Landport in the south to Bevern Bridge in the north. It includes the villages of Offham, Cooksbridge and Hamsey, each of which has its own distinctive character, but with just over 450 people on the electoral roll, the population is small and, for the most part, fairly scattered.
It is an area of deep contrasts. The landscape ranges from high chalk Downland, to the water meadows of the Ouse and the heavy clay pasture and woodlands of the Gault and Low Weald. The architecture is similarly diverse, ranging from medieval timber-framed buildings to Georgian manor houses and modern low cost homes.
The parish has a rich and fascinating history. Find out more by visiting Hamsey Past.
The river was canalised in the 18th century.
The railway arrived in the 19th century and this led to the growth of a new settlement around the station at Cooksbridge. It is now the parish’s biggest residential area.
Farming has been the main activity in the parish for many centuries, but a tannery existed in the 16th-century while local people also found employment in the chalk pits at Offham, the brickyard at Bevern Bridge and the old brewery at Cooksbridge.
The church at Hamsey served the parish from before the Norman Conquest until the new church of St Peter was built at Offham in 1859.
Hamsey Primary School was built in Cooksbridge in 1907 to replace the old schoolhouse at Offham. The Malthouse at Cooksbridge was built in the 18th century and last used for malting in 1912. It was used as the village hall as early as 1919 but was given up in September 2007 when Beechwood Hall, was opened. Situated at the recreation ground in Beechwood Lane the hall is available to hire. | <urn:uuid:db7943e9-546a-4647-a6a5-bb0ee1d6437c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hamsey.net/nfHome.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962565 | 597 | 1.539063 | 2 |
If you’re honest, you sooner or later have to confront your values. Then you’re...– Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker (via paperimages)
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the...– Bessie Anderson Stanley (via paperimages)
30 Traits Happy People Have in Common →
jayparkinsonmd: Here are a few of my favorites: They understand that happiness is a choice, and consciously and methodically create their own happiness, while others hope happiness will find them. They have clarity and certainty about what they want and don’t want for their life. They visualize and plan their best reality while others are merely spectators of life. They have identified their... | <urn:uuid:e4ae7da4-95d3-4fbb-bf48-84160fb9a5ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theuniversebroughtthistome.tumblr.com/archive | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935776 | 156 | 1.65625 | 2 |
When I started working in the textbook publishing industry, one of my first jobs required me to do a Quality Control check (QC) on page elements. We were expressly told NOT to read text but to review the "look" of the page. Were there widows, orphans on the page? How many sentences started with the same word? How much white space was there between paragraphs? Were the headers equidistant and centered across the page as required? What about styling? Were there any "soft returns", manual line breaks or double spaces after periods? If so, we fixed those elements then sent the text back to copyedit to review for consistency, grammar, spelling and fact-checking.
Unfortunately, I had a real difficult time NOT reading the text and would catch misspellings, comma splices and poor sentence structure in the text then get verbally reprimanded for marking it up. I couldn't help it! I can't NOT read the text and if I see a wrong, I must right it! I MUST!
You can see why I got along with the editors and copy editors better than the production teams now, don't you? As time went by, I learned to QC without reading and just "skimmed" the text for anything that stood out in glaring detail. I became the nightmare of many restaurant waitress whose menus had typos and poor design. I would actually take out my green pen (red = editorial, blue = design, green = QC) and mark-up their paper menus. Now, I can't read anything without looking at the whole picture. If there are too many similar words together in a paragraph (or several sentences start the same way) I stop and mark it up on my eReader. Sad, I know but it's just a part of who I am now.
Source: Staples eReader Department
What about you? Do you read pretty fast? Do you skim the text when you read at a quicker pace? | <urn:uuid:6bba0d67-7f11-4d28-9c2b-7ce14db7541e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saritzahernandez.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969384 | 400 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Marathon officials say sponsor discount misused, costing them thousands
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Hundreds of people who've signed up to run the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon are being told to pay up or sit out.
Race organizers say about 300 people inappropriately used a discount code, giving them up to half off their registration fee. WLUK-TV reports the discount is meant only for the employees and families of the race's major sponsors.
With a little more than 12 weeks to race weekend, 8,255 people are already registered for marathon events. Organizers say about three percent of the runners used the sponsor discount, despite having no apparent affiliation with the six sponsors. They say the money adds up to several thousand dollars that's supposed to benefit charities.
The entry fees ranged from $60 to $110. Sponsor discounts were worth up to $55.
Information from: WLUK-TV, http://www.fox11online.com | <urn:uuid:149ce80c-3d09-478e-a2a4-2170c5ce07fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/193118241.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949149 | 198 | 1.507813 | 2 |
If the temperature in your home never seems to increase but your energy bill does, it might be time to consider getting new windows. According to Angie's List creator Angie Hicks, "if you replace your windows you can save as much as 30 percent on your heating and cooling bills. In the long term, you can potentially get 70-80 percent of that investment back."
The website lists several different options available to consumers, like wood, metal, fiberglass and vinyl. Vinyl is the most popular among consumers because of its durability and the fact that it is low maintenance. When considering a project like installing new windows, it's important to do your research to be sure you are getting your money’s worth.
Angie's List offers the following suggestions to consumers:
- Who to hire: You should work with a reputable contractor who has good references, proper insurance, a solid business record and certified installers.
- Shop around: When considering a project like this, get bids from at least three different reputable companies.
- Window costs: While size, materials and other valuables play a role in window replacement costs, consumers should expect to pay approximately $350 to $500 per window for vinyl replacement windows. This price typically includes installation.
- Installation counts: A bad installation can compromise the effectiveness of even the best windows, so it's important for consumers to be sure the windows are installed according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Ask about lead certification: Contractors who perform renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes built before 1978 must be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. | <urn:uuid:064baac9-20d7-42f6-b269-19734f0b051a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.katu.com/news/problemsolver/angieslistreport/Angies-List-Window-Replacement-Options-138089273.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946886 | 335 | 1.632813 | 2 |
"There was a view of him as a hero, wandering Canada and the swamps of the Gulf, wandering out west in awe of redwoods, bringing the news to the rest of the world. If I knew anything about him it was that version, and that’s why I had never cared, honestly: the Johnny Appleseed, the hero, the public intellectual, the starry-eyed man at rest in nature. Was that not bullshit? Some American propaganda about the woods? Yes. But what I noted in the book, and why I cared now, was the desperation in his life, the way he seemed to both flee and return to his greatest fears. Had he been less confused in his youth, or even as a grown man, we wouldn’t know John Muir at all. He would have been too normal."
— Patrick Somerville, This Bright River | <urn:uuid:88586688-5c76-4e43-b047-b3261cebe448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hornreviews.tumblr.com/post/28770071308/there-was-a-view-of-him-as-a-hero-wandering | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988693 | 181 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Identification versus Importance
| Peter Klein |
At a recent workshop the subject of econometric identification came up. Identification is of course the major issue of our day among mainstream empirical economists. Some have described the dissertation process as the “search for a good instrument.” Instrumental-variables estimators have their critics, of course, but these critics are in the minority.
One of the workshop participants, a regular attendee at NBER events, summarized the consensus view among the elites of the profession with the following diagram:
A research problem can be important, and it can be well identified. The ideal problem is one in quadrant B, both important and identified. However, a problem in quadrant C is much more likely to be published in a top journal than a problem in quadrant A.
What does this say about the economics profession? | <urn:uuid:347b5e53-0a78-4a7c-ade1-9f056e40a23c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2008/11/26/identification-versus-importance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942061 | 178 | 1.515625 | 2 |
As Bowral prepares to showcase its annual Tulip Festival this weekend, Wall Street’s excesses seem a million miles away.
But the Southern Highlands hamlet has attracted global attention for its efforts to claw back millions from the leftovers of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that collapsed four years ago.
We’re managing. We have outlined what losses we could sustain and have been able to move on and provide essential services accordingly.
Bowral’s Wingecarribee Council was one of several to win millions of dollars in a landmark class action against the bank to recoup funds after it was left holding a ticking time bomb of toxic investments when the global financial crisis hit.
‘‘It's been in the public psyche here obviously. It's been a very long and ongoing process,’’ newly-elected Wingecarribee mayor Juliet Arkwright said.
In a landmark decision, the Federal Court this afternoon found the Australian arm of Lehman - previously called Grange Securities - was conflicted in its duty to give sound financial to the councils ‘‘and its own interest in earning very large fees or profits’’ in its sales of investments known as synthetic collateralised debt obligations.
Federal Court judge Steven Rares slammed the investments as being nothing more than a ‘‘sophisticated bet’’.
The case centred on Lehman’s local subsidiary selling high risk and exotic investments to Wingecarribee and dozens of councils, charities and church groups.
The instruments known as collateralised debt obligations had exposure to pools of debt comprising of high-risk US mortgages, car loans or credit card debt. But Lehman ignored requests to invest in low risk securities where the initial investment outlay were guaranteed.
The 72 plaintiffs were seeking a combined $260 million from the liquidator of the collapsed Lehman Brothers Australia although the final award is yet to be determined.
The case also marked a critical test of the fiduciary duty investment banks have to their customers when it comes to directing them into risky investments.
Wingecarribee Council suffered $21.4 million of losses on its investments and still holds millions worth of the toxic instruments on its books. The Federal Court today found the council was entitled to an initial award of $9 million.
Parkes Shire Council in NSW’s central west and Western Australia’s Swan Council were awarded a combined $7 million.
Ms Arkwright said although the losses have made planning difficult, the council has been coping with its finances over the past four years.
‘‘It wasn’t a deliberate choice of the council to invest in CDOs,’’ Ms Arkwright said. ‘‘We’re managing. We have outlined what losses we could sustain and have been able to move on and provide essential services accordingly.’’
The council is now at a point where it can again start planning for local projects - this includes a pool and regional art gallery. | <urn:uuid:7929a60b-d689-474d-82b5-32f7c4ae13a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/350966/how-bowral-got-caught-in-the-gfc/?src=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966558 | 630 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Solution of the Week
Upgrade Your Thermostat in 5 Easy Steps
As temperatures begin to drop, there's no better time for upgrading your outdated, mechanical thermostat with a programmable thermostat, which gives you the ability to set your heating system to turn on only during the hours you're home to enjoy it, for significant cost savings. Programmable thermostats can be used as direct replacements for most existing thermostats. Best of all, the upgrade process is much easier than you would imagine. Just follow the five steps described below.
|Step 1: Prepare to Remove Old Thermostat|
Start by removing the cover plate of your existing thermostat so that the wires connecting to the terminals are visible. You may only find two wires, or you may find as many as eight. The number of wires used depends on the type of HVAC system you have.
The covers of most mechanical thermostats just pop off with a screwdriver, although some are held in place with a screw or two. Note: Don't actually disconnect the wires until you complete Step 2.
You'll see that each wire has a different color. Write down which color wires are connected to which terminals, and keep the list handy. This step is important for you to connect the new thermostat correctly. Your list should look something like this:
|Step 2: List the Connections|
Don't be concerned if there are extra wires not connected to the original thermostat. It's a pretty common occurrence.
|Wire Color ||Terminal |
| Red ||R |
| White ||W |
| Green ||G |
| Yellow ||Y |
| Orange ||O |
|Step 3: Remove the Old Backboard & Install the New One|
|Turn off the power to the furnace and disconnect the wires from the terminals.
|Remove the backboard for the old thermostat (chances are that you'll need a screwdriver to do so). Once you've removed the old one, replace it with the backboard for the programmable thermostat.
|Step 4: Reconnect Wires| | <urn:uuid:e0a96a65-1752-4b40-a379-b80684062f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smarthome.com/solution22.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931619 | 444 | 1.648438 | 2 |
hy waste your money looking up your family tree?
Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.
don't know who my grandfather was, I am much more
concerned to know what his grandson will be.
ou live as long as you are remembered.
nybody can make history, only a great man can write it.
Oscar Wilde, Aphorisms
e who has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family
was begot by a flash of lightning.
Old English Proverb
f you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well
make it dance.
George Bernard Shaw
here is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors,
and no slave who has not had a king among his.
amily faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong
to us, we see the past, present, and future.
Gail Lumet Buckley
n the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery,
Nova Scotia: "Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102, The Good Die Young."
lawyer's epitaph in England: "Sir John Strange Here lies
an honest lawyer, And that is Strange".
arry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York: "Born 1903--Died 1942
Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down.
n a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery: "Here lies an Atheist: All dressed
up And no place to go." | <urn:uuid:b862f291-1a8a-4f2b-93fe-e4a5b69da0a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myheritage.fr/humour-genealogie | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94326 | 324 | 1.539063 | 2 |
G.L. Pieris seeks Japanese aid for Sri lanka
G.L. Pieris who is the Trade Minister for Sri Lanka has sought aid from Japan to help the country recover from its ethnic conflict.
TOKYO (AFP) — Sri Lanka's trade minister on Wednesday sought Japan's help for its recovery from ethnic conflict, while reiterating his government's rejection of any probe into alleged human rights violations.
The Sri lanka Trade Minister said the government will not agree to an international probe on the deaths of the civilians who were killed in the fighting that took place between the Sri lanka militay and the LTTE.
At the news conference, the former chief negotiator in the country's peace process reiterated that Colombo has no plan to probe allegations that thousands of civilians died.
Asked if the Sri Lankan government is eventually willing to accept an international probe, Peiris said: "No, we don't regard that attitude as acceptable. That is some kind of inquisition."
The minister said outside parties should refrain from making things difficult for Sri lanka. He warned that such unnecessary pressure on the Sri Lankan government may even lead to a revival of terrorism in the country.
The minister said: "The world should not try to... emphasise everything that is negative, make things as difficult as possible for Sri Lanka, threaten economic sanctions."
Unnecessary pressure on the Sri Lankan government may even lead to a revival of terrorism in the country, he warned.
It is yet not known whether Sri Lanka will be given the IMF loan they sought but G. L. Pieris said Wednesday that the government expects the International Monetary Fund to soon approve its application for an emergency loan.
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Sri Lankan international trade minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said Wednesday that the government expects the International Monetary Fund to soon approve its application for an emergency loan.
"We have every expectation that the first tranche will be delivered in the near future," Peiris said at a press conference in Tokyo during a trip to Japan.
Peiris' comments come as the government holds talks with the IMF for a $1.9 billion loan to help salve damage done to the country's export industry by the global financial crisis and to the broader economy by its recently ended civil war. | <urn:uuid:fd704815-7c0d-4ed8-a133-4c0a49cbd020> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nowpublic.com/world/g-l-pieris-seeks-japanese-aid-sri-lanka | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964926 | 473 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Three C’s: Casa, Calwood, and Camping!
Throughout 2011 and 2012, Cottonwood Institute has been partnering with Casa de la Esperanza, a Boulder County housing community in Longmont. We have gone on day hikes, hosted movie nights, and worked on action projects. And finally, on the weekend of July 21st, we embarked on the best adventure ever – CAMPING! The forest of Calwood Outdoor Education Center echoed with the laughter of seven boys and four girls. This group of 9-14 year olds was accompanied by a team of four enthusiastic Cottonwood Institute instructors, three supportive parents and one awesome chaperone for two days of adventure and fun in the mountains above Boulder. This was the first time many of these students have ever been camping, so they were eager to learn about camping and setting up their tents. What began as a competition to see who could get their tent set up first, ultimately ended in teamwork as parents, instructors and kids all worked together to set up the tents.
After successfully setting up base camp we hiked down to a lake and had some great stone-tossing competitions. We explored around the shoreline and found caddisfly larvae crawling around, and then found hatched caddisflies landing on us! As we strolled along the shore we munched on wild mint and learned about the plants around the pond. After frolicking across the meadows of Calwood, we found a perfect place to play a game of camouflage, which quickly became everybody’s favorite activity of the weekend.
On our hike back to camp shrieks from a couple of the girls alerted us to snake sightings. We all gathered around to watch the little garter snakes slither through the tall grass. The games and activities continued well past dinner and into the evening. We played wildfire tag and talked about the impacts of fire in Colorado. Many of the kids were disappointed that we couldn’t have a campfire until the instructors whipped out no-fire-smores, glow sticks, and LED lights for a pretend fire. When our bellies were full of graham crackers with frosting and chocolate, we embarked on a night hike, where the initial fear of the dark was replaced by awe at the starry mountain sky. Not to be outdone by the darkness and yawns, we made time for a few rounds of the always exciting blind drumstalk activity, and finally exhausted, we collapsed into our tents for a restful evening under the stars.
Sunday morning dawned bright and early as the smiling Casa kids surrounded our tents, eager for breakfast and more adventures. Once we were full of oatmeal, we got our blood pumping by playing a game of Alaskan Baseball with Fred the Chicken toy, then headed over to our service project – fire mitigation. Everyone did a fantastic job hauling wood from the slash piles up the hill to the road. We were rewarded with watermelon and an energizing game of camouflage. Reflection time and a treasure circle helped bring our weekend to a close, but only because it was Sunday. If it was up to the kids we would still be there.
Thanks to The Brett Family Foundation, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, our donors, supporters, Cottonwood Institute instructors and staff, and the Casa de la Esperanza community for providing the students with this opportunity to enjoy and connect to the beauty of the outdoors!
Click here to check out a slideshow of the adventure.
Click here for Casa de la Esperanza’s report on the adventures. We are all in agreement – Can’t wait for next year!
Written by Kelly Muller. Edited by April Pishna. | <urn:uuid:cbe41597-566f-4028-a75a-63f464d052bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cottonwoodinstitute.org/casa-de-la-esperanza-2/the-three-cs-casa-calwood-and-camping/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960842 | 761 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The McCain campaign implied on Wednesday that Barack Obama's commitment to preventing a future genocide was not sincere, attacking the Democratic candidate during his appearance at the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.
In an early morning press release, entitled "Obama on Genocide," McCain aide Tucker Bounds emailed reporters a quote from Obama's appearance in which the Illinois Democrat reiterated the cry "never again." He followed that quote with one taken a year ago from an interview that the Senator gave with the Associated Press in which he said that genocide or humanitarian crises were not a prerequisite for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq (a statement he has since walked back)
"Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces," said Obama, "then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now."
The message was fairly explicit: Obama's commitment to stopping future Holocausts is in doubt. Asked for clarification, McCain aide Michael Goldfarb responded:
"Today he says 'never again.' A year ago stopping genocide wasn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces in Iraq. Doesn't that strike you as inconsistent?"
It's a heavy charge to make, not least because Obama had just wrapped up his visit to the Holocaust memorial. In addition, there are, for better or worse, outstanding implications when discussing genocide when it comes to Jews -- and the insertion of the issue into the presidential campaign will border for some, on the taboo. Moreover, on the topic of Iraq, Obama has said he would leave a residual force to intervene in potential humanitarian crises and that he reserves the right to intervene militarily with international partners in order to "suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq."
"I'd love to know more about Obama's residual force," said Goldfarb, when asked about it. "How big is it, where is it based, what is its mission, how long will it remain in Iraq? Nobody knows the answers to those questions, and I'd encourage the Huffington Post to inquire further with the Obama campaign."
UPDATE: Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), one of the most high-profile Jewish supporters of Obama, tells the Huffington Post that McCain's attack is "shameful" and "unconscionable."
Obama today at Yad Vashem:
"Let our children come here and know this history so they can add their voices to proclaim 'never again.' And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us and who have become symbols of the human spirit."
Obama on July 20, 2007:
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.
"Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now -- where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife -- which we haven't done," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Click to view image: '204900-sHOLOCAUSTlarge.jpg'
In: Iraq, News
Tags: Barack Obama, Mccain Attack, Mccain Genocide, Mccain Holocaust, McCain Iraq, Obama Genocide, Obama Holocaust, Obama Iraq, Obama McCain, Obama Yad Vashem
Marked as: approved
Views: 9597 | Comments: 23 | Votes: 0 | Favorites: 0 | Shared: 0 | Updates: 0 | Times used in channels: 1
|Liveleak on Facebook| | <urn:uuid:21a77410-3c69-440d-95e3-5f6f4e803e9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=beb_1216847204 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955783 | 780 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The problem is that most people don't know what to do with this information. It seems the news is coming in so fast and in such large amounts, we are having trouble sorting through it and putting it in perspective.
Take last week's announcement that inflation fell to 1.7 percent (2.3 percent if you include food and fuel). The average American might look at that and think, "Whew, my paycheck should go a lot further this week than last."
I, unfortunately, have a different view. When I combine that news with the fact that 1) the government's most recent bailout, "The Twist," is ending in June, 2) The Fed is meeting this week and 3) jobless claims have moved back to 386,000, I begin to brace myself for another round of potential bailouts.
I believe this would be round four or five, but who's counting?
Maybe I should be happy that we are going to be rescued again. Maybe this means the stock market could go back up, and all would be better.
Unfortunately, I don't feel that way. When I look at what has happened to our citizens' wealth during the last five years, I get a feeling that maybe this is not working.
According to the Federal Reserve, our median net worth (the difference between our assets and liabilities), dropped 39 percent from 2007 to 2010. Our income did not fare much better. According to the Fed's survey of consumer finance during that same period, our median value of real (inflation adjusted) family income before taxes fell 7.7 percent.
All of this occurred during an unprecedented campaign of spending by our government designed to fix our economy and help us get back on our feet.
So I am not excited about falling inflation; in fact, it scares me. I don't think our debt load can be pushed much further. I think that if we were better informed, our government might not be so trigger-happy with the checkbook next time. And maybe we could start reducing this debt instead of adding to it.
Joe Wirbick is president of Lancaster financial services firm Sequinox and specializes in retirement planning and distribution. This allows him to concentrate on developing strategies that help address the unique issues that confront retirees and those approaching retirement. | <urn:uuid:ad101843-0447-4478-a664-0ef301c0921c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article/20120622/WEALTH/120629923/-1/hospitality_tourism&template=wealth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979294 | 468 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In a new post to his MSDN blog today Brian Swan looks at combining PHP with Silverlight to make it simpler to embed streaming content into your sites.
I'd planned on diving into the Embedding Silverlight in PHP project, but what I found is that there have been some changes in Microsoft technologies since the release of that project that make it even easier to embed Silverlight in PHP applications. So I'll stick to the spirit of my promise if not to the letter of it.
He shows how to set up some storage (a blob) on the Windows Azure service as a place to keep the video you're going to stream. When you set it up you'll create a public service name and get an access key that you can use when accessing the videos. He includes an example of the upload process and how, based on the information for each video, you can use this project to pull video directly from this data store. | <urn:uuid:318013b5-69a6-4589-9665-2f4eb733e5eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/14273 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946776 | 189 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Food garden blooms on skid row wall
Fruits, vegetables and herbs tended by formerly homeless residents cover urban gray.
It's the smell you notice first: not the usual scent for this part of downtown, more accustomed to overflowing trash cans, sour urine and the stench of people who have spent too long sleeping on L.A.'s streets.
Instead, it's sweet and green, with a tinge of lavender -- and it comes from the vegetable garden that residents of the Rainbow Apartments planted last week in a most unlikely place: attached to a cinder-block wall of a parking lot off San Julian Street in the heart of skid row.
The 34-foot-long vertical plot, which looks like a swath of green carpet against the cinder blocks, is filled with strawberries, tomatoes, basil and other herbs and vegetables. It's a step up for the dozen or so members of the gardening group at the Rainbow Apartments, all formerly homeless, who have spent the two years since their building opened learning about the caprice of nature and the promise of its bounty.
The first time they tried planting vegetables, in a couple of wooden bins on the rooftop of their building, their novice status meant that plants weren't watered and cared for properly.
"Everything died," said Chris Owens, the group's de facto leader.
The second time, things went better. Members of the group paid special attention to the sprouts they planted, watering and pruning with care. And under their vigilant tending, corn stalks pushed upward. Watermelons appeared on vines.
Many residents were surprised by the way gardening united them, in an area where it sometimes seems best to mind your own business and keep to yourself.
"It brings us together as a group, kind of like therapy, to see something growing and flourishing," Jannie Burrows said.
"We're trying to feed our bodies with better nutrients," Lance Shaw said. "But more than anything, we like getting together."
The modest initial success led the Rainbow group to the nonprofit Urban Farming, which helped the group install the green wall last week as part of its Food Chain project. Urban Farming also erected "edible" walls at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, the Miguel Contreras Learning Center and the Weingart Center.
The Food Chain project, said Urban Farming founder Taja Sevelle, enables residents in some of the city's poorest areas to grow food in underused spaces at a time when food prices are soaring. The walls, she said, "get people to think outside the box. You can plant food in so many different places."
As Owens and two other men struggled under the weight of planting grids filled with cucumbers, tomatillos and lavender, George Irwin, the president of Green Living Technologies, whose company manufactured and donated the system of planting grids, watched with a careful eye.
"Lift and slide," Irwin told them as they carefully placed the grids onto brackets mounted on the wall. The plantings began above their heads, and vines and tendrils snaked down the wall. "One, two, three: good. Let it down."
Sweating a bit as he took a break from lifting 51 panels into place, each filled with soil and plants, Owens stepped back and was impressed. "We've opened up a space we never would have had," he said.
Rainbow resident Cenith Youngblood wiped the units with a white cloth, clearing away extra soil and organic matter. When she was done, she looked at the wall.
"It's gorgeous," Youngblood said. "I was trying to visualize what they meant by a green wall. Now it's beautiful. I see cucumbers and strawberries, and what are these? Basil?"
No, she was told: peppers.
"Jalapenos! Oh, I love jalapenos!"
Owens said the group planned to be responsible for the pruning and harvesting of the garden walls. In the next few months, he said, they would evaluate whether the mix of plants worked for the residents.
"Everybody will have a say about what they want," said Owens, who is partial to tomatoes because they are "very versatile."
Regardless of what the bounty is, he said, they would share their crops with the building's other residents.
"We try to share food with everyone," he said. "We don't like people taking it just for themselves."
A few days after the installation, the Rainbow parking lot was quiet. Underscoring changes that have taken place in skid row in the last few years, San Julian Street, which once teemed with people and homeless encampments, was largely empty. The green wall, visible through a metal slatted fence, was barely noticed by most passersby.
But Wilber Geter paused for a moment outside the fence, and peered in. "Are those tomatoes?" he asked.
Geter, who had just collected his mail at the Volunteers of America Drop-In Center nearby, shook his head.
"Everybody's got all kind of ideas," he said. "I like that. They did a good job on that." | <urn:uuid:ddfb56c5-c3f3-4fb7-abcb-fc22e32d683f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guerrillagardening.org/community/index.php?topic=1265.msg4022 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974418 | 1,071 | 1.742188 | 2 |
A recent proposal prepared for the Government of Canada would see 220,000 grey seals killed and incinerated in their protected Sable Island nursery.
The proposal reads like a horror novel:
-- Hunters would storm the beaches at dawn and begin slaughtering baby seals by shooting them in the head with prohibited silencer-equipped rifles
-- The slaughtered seals would then be grabbed by a loader machine specially modified to carry the carcasses.
-- They'd be loaded onto dump trucks to be transported to portable incinerators where they'd be burned.
-- Each truck would be filled in 10 minutes, and would run 24/7 and for 25 days straight.
To reach the proposed number of 220,000 seals, the cull and disposal program would run at birthing time each year for about five years and cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $35 million.
Please urge the Canadian government to categorically reject this outrageous proposal.
Sign our petition today to ensure that Sable Island's grey seal population is spared this sickening slaughter, and that the island remains a protected habitat for seals.
Dear Madam Minister,
A report prepared recently for the Government proposed that 220,000 grey seals be shot and incinerated in their protected Sable Island nursery.
This horrific proposal includes shooting pups with silencer-equipped rifles, loading them onto dump trucks with a specially modified grabber machine, and transporting them to incinerators - all at a taxpayer cost of $35 million.
[Your comment will be inserted here.]
Of course, this disgusting grey seal massacre will not help the recovery of depleted cod stocks.
Culling of marine mammals has never been shown to benefit any commercial fish stock. According to your own scientists, the current state of cod stocks is the result of the long-term effects of overfishing - not grey seals. In addition, the DFO National Workshop on the Impacts of Seals on Fish Populations in Eastern Canada concluded that there is no analysis to suggest that fewer grey seals would have a positive effect on fish stock recovery.
I demand that your Department reject this outrageous and scientifically unjustified plan.
Keep up the great work. Look what you've accomplished!
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your widget size and color and copy the embed code to your site or blog. | <urn:uuid:4ef706be-f4b4-486e-9214-c088d8de3c64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/883/975/627/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931139 | 503 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Expand Recycling Bin concept with its various handy features will be able to reduce the recycling management difficulties and inefficiencies for electronic wastages easily. It can be easily moved from one place to another and it will alert the recycling agency about its exact current location so that they can organize their pickup routes accordingly when the bin is full.
The Expandable Recycling bin features a low starting and increases its height gradually with the wastages, allowing effective space management and low drop for brittle electronics. The facility manager of an apartment or office can have a visual feedback through the expansion and a maximum size bin denotes it needed to be emptied. It features a RFID locking system that ensures only valid residents with a RFID tag can open and use the bin. Besides, there will be a designated person with a special access tag to unlock the wheels. Biopregs, an eco-friendly bio-composite is the main material that has been used to create the two major parts of the bin. Cautious emptying in the pickup-vehicle has been ensured by placing a reusable bag in the bin which is lifted out with a crane. The bag is prepared of heavy duty fabric with durable chemical proof coating.
Designer : SpringTime | <urn:uuid:e707be39-a1da-4c5a-ab77-10f9cc9f7654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuvie.com/expand-recycling-bin-for-apartment-and-office-buildings-by-springtime/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944147 | 253 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Israel deported at least 1,000 Sudanese refugees to North Sudan via a third county, without informing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and despite the fact that “[Sudan] has vowed to punish any of its citizens who ever set foot in Israel”:
Though Israel claims the people’s return was voluntary, this claim was rejected by UNHCR, which says there is no “free will from inside a prison.”
Under a recent amendment to Israel’s infiltration law, asylum seekers can be jailed for years without trial. Testimony from within prisons indicates that detainees were also denied access to UNHCR, in violation of the UN convention on the status of refugees, which Israel has signed.
…Michael Bavli, UNHCR’s representative in Israel, warned the Population, Immigration and Border Authority that “deporting Sudanese to Sudan would be the gravest violation possible of the convention that Israel has signed - a crime never before committed.” [emphasis mine]
The U.N. refugee convention holds that even if an immigrant was not a refugee when he or she immigrated, he or she becomes such if being repatriated constitutes a threat to life and limb. As Haaretz notes, this understanding of international law has been upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court. Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak wrote in one verdict that:
This is the great principle of non-refoulement, under which a person cannot be deported to a place where his life or liberty would be in danger. This principle is enshrined in Article 33 of the refugee convention.… It applies in Israel to every governmental authority that deals with deporting someone from Israel.
Many of the Sudanese who fled to Israel did so from Darfur, where American Jewish social activists have been deeply involved in the struggle against the Sudanese government’s genocidal policies; the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and genocide in Darfur. Refugees coming from other parts of Sudan
have also been subjected to brutal attack by the Sudanese government – including aerial bombing, the destruction of entire villages and mass arrests of hundreds of thousands of people – in an effort to suppress what the government terms rebellions.
Israel’s decision to send defenseless human beings back to this reality is disturbingly of a piece with the treatment it has long afforded African refugees: As mentioned above illegal immigrants may be detained for years without trial; the legal status of refugees has been manipulated so that they may not legally seek work; Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai and other coalition members have incited racial violence against the refugees; the police have distorted crime statistics; and in one horrific case, a group of 21 refugees was literally left to starve on the border before three were imprisoned and the rest forced to return to the Sinai, where human traffickers routinely torture and rape whoever falls in their hands.
This story has gone largely under-covered by the American press (though not, as some have suggested, entirely unreported, with the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post all publishing articles just in the past year, to name three outlets), and I have some thoughts as to why: the story doesn’t fit into the usual Israeli-Arab conflict tropes; the American press continues to face enormous financial struggles and has been slashing foreign coverage for years; the world is a huge place with major disasters and human tragedies playing out every day; and finally, while the African refugees in Israel number in the tens of thousands, there are frankly much bigger refugee stories out there, with much less complicated narratives. These are not excuses, they are only possible explanations, and the fact is: the information is out there, should we care to look for it.
But mostly, American and Israeli Jews have not cared to look for it—and if we have, we’ve supported the Israeli government in what can only be described as shocking and unconscionable actions. We can agree that a country has a right to protect its borders and spend its budget on its own citizens, without agreeing to this. Virtually every Jewish family alive today has a story burned into its collective memory of pogroms, ethnic discrimination, official scapegoating, privation, starvation, rape, and murder.
Is this the Jewish State we dreamed of? | <urn:uuid:be40eda9-73fb-404e-8fb9-d9abecf6496f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2013/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962098 | 905 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Australia should consider a raft of reforms, including to the tax and industrial systems, to help boost productivity and economic growth, National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney says.
Addressing shareholders at NAB's annual general meeting on Thursday, Mr Chaney said that as the resources investment boom peaks and Australia's terms of trade declines, the nation will need to increase productivity to achieve acceptable economic growth.
"This will only come about through a renewed focus on microeconomic reform in industrial relations, regulation, infrastructure and taxation, to name a few," he said.
He also suggested a review of the domestic funding model used by local banks, which raise a significant amount of their funding on international, short-term, and wholesale funding markets.
He said the global financial crisis had shown how banks' funding can be threatened, and resolving issues surrounding the current model could help avoid constraints on Australia's economic growth.
Mr Chaney said using Australia's growing superannuation pool could be one solution, along with a more neutral tax treatment of savings.
Other ideas included the development of an active corporate bond market in Australia and increasing domestic deposits.
Meanwhile, shareholders heard that the restructuring of NAB's ailing British banks - Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks - was well advanced and expected to be complete next year.
Ongoing troubles in Britain caused NAB's first drop in profit since the GFC.
Almost $1 billion in costs from measures aimed at shoring up its United Kingdom business caused NAB's net profit for the year to September 30 to drop by 22 per cent from the previous year to $4.08 billion.
Chief executive Cameron Clyne said 2013 would be another challenging year for the bank.
"We have good momentum in our core Australian and New Zealand businesses and the right cost disciplines for these more difficult times," he said.
NAB's shares were two cents lower at $24.64 at 1301 AEDT. | <urn:uuid:1b69fbf2-9f77-449c-a2bb-f679d9f5f8d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/nab-chair-calls-major-economic-021109233.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960869 | 397 | 1.601563 | 2 |
From the Pennsylvania Game Commission
-- The state Game Commission has approved a focused, limited authorization that permits the use of bait for deer hunting in WMUs 5C and 5D on approved properties enrolled in the agency's Agriculture Deer Depredation Program. It's commonly referred to as the Red Tag program.
The move underscores the Commission's efforts to find effective tools to manage deer populations on agriculture lands in the southeast corner of the state.
In 2010, the Commission's three-year evaluation of the effectiveness of bait use for deer hunting across southeast Special Regulations Areas counties expired. Under the new regulation, the agency is focusing on bait use on farms most in need of deer control assistance during the Red Tag time frame. Farmers applying to enroll in the Red Tag program need to include in their application justification for the need to use bait.
Farmers enrolled in the Red Tag program are provided with a specific number of antlerless deer permits, which are red in color. Farmers give the permits to hunters to harvest antlerless deer from Feb. 1 to Sept. 28 each calendar year, excluding Sundays, during the hours of dawn to dusk only. The permits are not valid from May 16 to June 30, and can't be used to take bucks.
The listings of farms enrolled in the Red Tag program are maintained by respective Region Offices because landowners enrolled in the program change from year to year. | <urn:uuid:eca5482f-7dad-4126-8ccc-3758cc01ab58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buckmasters.com/pennsylvania-allows-limited-bait-use-on-red-tag-farms.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950393 | 282 | 1.820313 | 2 |
However, as one person I only have so much time to do more things than I could finish in a lifetime. Currently, I am working on a journal article that will be published this fall on the pre-mature deaths of First Nations caused by the crisis of poverty created and maintained by Canada. This article is taking me much longer to write than usual because of the subject matter.
As I type the words on each page, my heart gets heavier and heavier until I cannot hold my feelings anymore and have to walk away from the paper. Sometimes, when I am referring to very specific examples, stories of specific communities and individuals, I can't help but cry. I am not crying for me, but for our Indigenous brothers and sisters who are denied their very lives by all the discriminatory laws, policies, and barriers imposed on First Nations by Canada.
Often times we hear these words so often from our leaders and various advocacy organizations that the public hears it only as rhetoric - an exaggeration of the actual situation in First Nations. Any publicity about a crisis in one of our communities is quickly downplayed by allegations of corruption or mis-spending in another. We are often blamed for the ill effects of colonization and systemic racism.
Canada has perfected the ability to "defer, deflect and deny" the fact of First Nations dying by poverty. Creating these situations of life and death make "negotiations" about our Aboriginal and treaty rights and land claims much easier. We are so far from an equal bargaining position with Canada that any agreement arrived at today should be challenged as an imprudent bargain.
This is what I am writing about in my article. This is the reason why I haven't been able to post any blogs lately or update my website (which is in desperate need of an update). Here is an excerpt from my article that I am working on:
However, it is not just the federal government’s own offices and agencies that have noted Canada’s lack of action on First Nation poverty and discrimination. The Ontario coroner’s report referred to earlier clearly linked the extreme poverty in Pikangikum First Nation to the high suicide rates among their children:
What health care residents do receive is “fragmented, chaotic and uncoordinated” with “clear gaps in service”. Their school burnt down in 2007 and has never been replaced despite empty promises by INAC to do so. The significant funding disparities that exist between First Nation and Canadian students means that the students who are the most disadvantaged and have the greatest needs, receive the least. A community of only 2400 people has 200 child welfare files open with 80 children in care. Due to the lack of housing and the high levels of overcrowding, these children are sent to foster homes far away from their communities. Should anyone be surprised by the fact that 16 children between the ages of 10-19 took their own lives between 2006 and 2008? Under the Criminal Code of Canada, section 318(2)(b) defines genocide as:
(b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.
At what point does Canada’s denial of the problem equate with a de facto policy of genocide?
As always, I welcome any comments or feedback you may have about any of my blogs. For the next little while however, there may be delays in my response so that I can finish this article. | <urn:uuid:ad6f8733-a4b6-4d0a-93b4-9c3bcb1d7ebf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.com/2011/07/canadas-genocide-death-by-poverty-in.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963957 | 697 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We've come a long way from President Theodore Roosevelt's famous
saying "Speak softly and carry a big stick." President Barack Obama's
policy apparently is to whisper slyly and compromise our security.
What else are we to conclude of his notorious open-mic moment with
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev? Why would he think it's okay to send a
message to President-elect Vladimir Putin that "all these issues, but
particularly missile defense ... can be solved" if Putin will "give me
space" until after the U.S. presidential election?
In short, hang on, Russia. I can't tell the electorate that I'm
willing to weaken our defenses. Once those dopes have sent me back to
the White House for another term, I'll have a free hand to give you what
As if we haven't already given away too much. Under the 2010 New
START treaty, a strategic nuclear arms-control pact with Russia, the
U.S. agreed to reduce its missile-defense capabilities, along with the
number of strategic nuclear missiles and bombers. Russia, however, may
build more such "delivery vehicles," since it reported fewer of these
(521) than the treaty allows (700). New Start was really about degrading
America's strategic superiority.
On missile defense, we left two allies twisting in the wind. Both
Poland and Czech Republic had ignored Russian threats and agreed to host
missile-defense sites that would have helped protect U.S. territory and
our European allies. President Obama cancelled both sites shortly after
taking office. But this, and New START, apparently aren't enough for
the Kremlin. Hence the president's whispered hint that more is coming.
Are these concessions being made to an ally, someone who has
demonstrated a willingness to work with the United States to make the
world a safer place? On the contrary. Putin has been openly disdainful
of American foreign policy in many of the world's trouble spots, from
Syria to Asia to Latin America. And what does he get? Respect. Rewards. A
genuine ally such as Britain, meanwhile, is treated poorly. The
administration has gone out of its way to assure Britain that it's
nothing special, and even sided with some of its adversaries in matters
such as the dispute over the Falkland Islands.
Think about the message this sends to the world: that it's better to
be America's enemy than to be its friend. That belligerence pays off.
That cooperation is a fool's game.
Worse, the president joked about it the next day. Before taking
reporters' questions, he said, "First of all, are the mics on?" And he
offered a lame defense of his initial comments: it's an election year,
so there's no time for "thoughtful consultations." On the contrary, it's
the perfect time. But surely he knows that. So why is he making jokes
that seem to indicate he doesn't take these matters very seriously?
He should. Consider the wide array of threats the U.S. faces. In
addition to terrorist groups -- al-Qaeda, of course, but many others as
well -- we have rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea acquiring
nuclear capabilities. China continues to build up its military at an
alarming rate. The unrest in the Middle East shows no signs of abating.
And those are just the threats we know about.
Yet the Obama administration's budget proposal would reduce total
U.S. defense spending by over 21 percent in fiscal year 2014 from what
it was in fiscal year 2010. While other militaries expand, ours is being
forced to contract.
And it should go without saying that we need a comprehensive missile
defense with components on land, at sea and in space. That way, we have a
much better chance of stopping an enemy missile in almost any stage of
"I think we'll do better in 2013," President Obama said as he tried
to explain his open-mic incident. We can indeed. But we have to reverse
the reckless and dangerous game he insists on playing with this
country's security. He doesn't need "space." He needs sense.Ed Feulner is president of The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org). | <urn:uuid:5a9f53f3-f38e-4145-8ca9-71c2436a6d2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magic-city-news.com/Ed_Feulner_26/A_Whispering_Campaign15880.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962792 | 910 | 1.773438 | 2 |
In essence, Judge Hudson argues that by passing [the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act] that says that Virginia will interpose itself to protect its citizens from the individual mandate, Virginia has succeeded ... in getting around the federal tax-anti-injunction act.
... The fact that Virginia can get around the tax anti-injunction act simply by passing a statute saying that it thinks the federal law is unconstitutional means that every state in the Union can do so as well. This undermines the purposes of the tax anti-injunction act, which was to keep tax protesters from littering the federal courts with protest litigation; the act requires that challenges to tax laws proceed in an orderly fashion through requesting refunds.Tax protesters? You see the states, acting through their legislatures, as presenting the same problem of frivolous, wasteful litigation posed by private litigants?
There is a built-in check here that is not present for those private litigants, which is that elected representatives of the people of a state have gone through a deliberative process in making that statute, and, in addition, the state executive branch has made the decision to bring the lawsuit. These tiers of public accountability make a difference with respect to the necessity of the Anti-Injunction Act.
That act, as Judge Hudson noted, does not refer to a state as being barred from bringing suits for injunctions, only a "person." There's a question of interpretation about whether a state should be included in the word "person," and there's good reason to think it should not. For one thing, the general rule of statutory interpretation is that "person" does not mean state. And, even more important, as I've just explained, structural checks mean that the state as a litigant doesn't present the same problems posed by an individual litigant.
Indeed, the logic of the opinion seems to suggest that if Virginia had objections to any other part of the federal tax laws, it could pass a Virgina Tax Freedom Act related to that provision, claiming that the tax provision was beyond the reserved powers of the states under the Tenth Amendment.How big of a threat is that? The federal tax power is extremely broad, so that virtually any lawsuit like this would be easily dismissed on the merits. You don't need a broad interpretation of the Anti-Injunction Act to solve this problem. Nearly all of the cases you ask us to fret about would either never be brought or be dismissed quickly for failure to state a claim. In the Virginia case, by contrast, the question on the merits is very difficult, and the judge held back from resolving it. How often could that happen? And when it does happen, should there be a way to challenge it in court?
(Also, Balkin can't mean the state would be "claiming that the tax provision was beyond the reserved powers of the states under the Tenth Amendment." He must have meant to write that the claim would be "the tax provision was beyond the enumerated powers of Congress and thus reserved to the states the states under the Tenth Amendment.") | <urn:uuid:c4af69fe-3721-457e-9890-6762d33cff42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/do-we-really-need-to-worry-as-jack.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979052 | 628 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Greece's government on Tuesday strongly criticized the leader of an extreme right party who claimed that Nazi concentration camps did not use ovens and gas chambers to kill prisoners during the Holocaust.
Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis described televised remarks made by Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) party leader Nikos Michaloliakos as an «extreme insult to the memory of millions of Holocaust victims.» The spokesman accused the 55-year-old party leader of «distorting history."
"There were no ovens -- it's a lie. I believe it's a lie. There were no gas chambers either,» Michaloliakos said in an interview with Greece's private Mega television, broadcast on Sunday. | <urn:uuid:24d81b34-a382-4de7-891d-a01d2d88951b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phantis.com/news/chrysi-avgi-blasted-over-holocaust-comments?quicktabs_greece_world_news=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94068 | 149 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes
J.K. Rowlings? Stephen King? Or perhaps George Orwell?
Obviously your interests will place a big part in who you’d choose as your favorite author but if you’re interested in business then there are a few authors that stand out.
There’s Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad series, there’s Dale Carnegie’s and his famous “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and then there’s Steven Covey and his 7 Habits who sadly, passed away earlier this week.
Steven Covey’s book burst onto the scene back in 1989 and has remained on the best sellers list ever since and in 2011 was listed as one of Times “25 Most Influential Business Management Books.”
If you haven’t had a chance to read this excellent book then I highly recommend you do. You’ll find it in most used book stores but it’s worth its weight in gold.
And it’s not just for people who are managers as the principles apply in achieving success in our relationships and in our success.
You’ll find many incredible insights in the book that will, simply put, floor you.
And if you think the book is good, the audio program is even better if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on it.
The truth is that most of us, myself included, for most of our lives have been applying IN-effective habits and just not realized it.
Because most of us learn by trial-and-error which leads us to some pretty costly errors.
I’ve been there. But when I decided to make success a study 5 years ago, I realized that so many people have kindly taken the time to put their stories and experiences down on paper to share with us. There’s no reason we need to repeat their mistakes.
Studying from people who have been there and done allow us to cut down the learning curve. There’s less guessing and a higher chance of success. That doesn’t mean you won’t run into trouble but, speaking from experience, I sure wish I had read those books before I plunked down $20,000 in a partnership or $4000 on a pyramid scheme.
Steven Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” brings in lessons learned with his children, at work, from seminars and in business. You’ll find yourself laughing, thinking, wondering and hopefully, applying some of the ideas contained within it in your own life.
For me, one I try and do each and every day is “sharpen the saw” which refers to keeping ourselves sharp mentally and physically.
When our health suffers, our work suffers. When our work sucks, our relationships suffer. Everything’s connected so we can’t let one area of our life suffer otherwise we’ll have to face the consequences sooner or later. Unfortunately, most people are so focused on doing that they forget to take time to THINK, PLAN and PREPARE for tomorrow.
Steven Covey he has left behind a legacy that will forever change businesses and people for many years to come.
Thank you Dr. Covey, you will be missed. | <urn:uuid:274aacc0-1b5f-4594-b348-c9acc2c79355> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://isucceedbook.com/expert-perspective/success-principles-steven-covey-author-of-7-habits-leaves-behind-a-legacy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959484 | 696 | 1.640625 | 2 |
(Parenting) -- I was 7 years old when I received a tiny Christmas present -- about the size of an eraser -- awkwardly wrapped and covered in tape.
My sister's boyfriend, Jeff, was visiting and had considerately brought gifts for his girlfriend's three younger siblings. Mine, though, was by far the smallest. I remember opening it up to reveal a miniature ceramic dog -- a cold, hard nothing that fit in the palm of my hand -- and thinking how unlucky I was.
I gave Jeff my best cold shoulder the rest of the day.
And I've felt guilty about it ever since. Partly because, in hindsight, Jeff's gift was very thoughtful: I'd been obsessed with my dollhouse, and he had managed to find one accessory my dream home did not yet have -- a pet. Still, I couldn't look past the size of the gift to be grateful for the amount of care that had gone into choosing it.
In this, experts say, I wasn't an unusual kid: For distractible, still-developing children (and that's pretty much all of them), gratitude can be hard-won. While many can be trained to say "please" and "thank you" beginning at about 18 months, true appreciativeness and generosity take time to seed and blossom.
"There's a difference between encouraging thankfulness in your kids and actually expecting it," says Claire Lerner, a child-development specialist at Zero to Three, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the healthy development of kids and families. "Raising a grateful child is an ongoing process."
Parenting: Easy holiday cookie recipes
Vicki Hoefle, director of Parenting on Track, a parent-education program based in East Middlebury, VT (and the mother of five teenagers), concurs: "As nice as it is to think about having a five-year-old who appreciates and shows gratitude for everything, the truth is, parents can feel successful if they raise a thirty-five-year-old who embodies that grateful spirit."
So, to Jeff Galvin I offer a long-overdue "Thank you."
To everyone else, here's how to avoid getting derailed by five not-so-thankful-kid moments, both this holiday season and all year long:
Your 9-year-old keeps a running -- and growing -- list of toys he has to have. He's up to number 23 this season. In-The-Moment Fix: "Emphasize that you appreciate there are many things he wants, but let him know it will only be possible to get a few of them," says Robert Brooks, Ph.D., a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of Raising a Self-Disciplined Child. That way, you won't make him feel greedy or foolish for compiling a lengthy list, but you will set his expectations.
Another idea: Ask him to make a second list, equal in number to the things he wants to get, of things or actions he is willing to give, suggests Maureen Healy, author of 365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids. For example: 1) Clean his room, 2) Help you find a charity that the family can donate to, 3) Pitch in when Dad starts wrapping presents, 4) Make a holiday card. Last, if you're in for belt-tightening this year, let him know.
Be honest, but keep it simple and undramatic so you don't scare him. Instead of saying "Dad might lose his job, so we have to cut back" -- which might make him sure you'll be losing the house next -- say something like "Nothing major is going to change, but we'll have to wait until next year to go on vacation and we have to hold off on getting the new bike you wanted." It's likely your kid will think "Okay, I can live with that," says Lerner.
Long-Term Strategy: Help him understand that gifts are thoughtful gestures, not just a way for him to score materialistic gain, says Lerner. Anytime he receives a present, point out everything the giver put into it. If a classmate makes him a friendship bracelet, for example, say "Oh, wow -- Lucy remembered that you thought these were cool. She picked out colors she knows you like, and it probably took her a whole hour to make. That is so nice."
Parenting: How to volunteer as a family
Do this enough times and he'll get the "quality, not quantity" idea before you know it.
Your 5-year-old grimaces at the stuffed Elmo her aunt gives her and says, "But I wanted a Barbie!" In-The-Moment Fix: "The concept of hiding your own negative feelings to protect someone else's is way too complex for kids five and under," says Lerner. (Older kids get better and better but will still have frequent slipups.) So validate your daughter's feelings without responding critically, says Brooks.
Say "I know you wanted a Barbie, but let's think about all the different ways we can play with Elmo." You can also step in and model the appropriate response -- and defuse the uncomfortable situation -- by exclaiming something like "Wow, that was so thoughtful, wasn't it, Alli? Aunt Karen remembered you needed mittens!" This trick works for all ages: If your older son receives a gift he already owns, for example, say "Oh, cool! That's your favorite game!"
Write a little script for your child to follow when he gets a present, recommends Bette Freedson of the National Association of Social Workers. Come up with a stock line or two together, like "Thank you! I like it a lot!" He can also pick out one thing to specifically compliment ("This blanket feels really soft").
Long-Term Strategy: Before any gift-getting occasion, prepare your child for the possibility that she may not like all her presents, but at the same time, let her know that it's still important to show her appreciation. Remind her that people put effort into trying to find her the best thing. Then devise a special cue between the two of you, suggests Lerner, that reminds her to say thank you. When you see her mouth turning down, you can clap your hands and say "Great present!" to snap her back into good-manners mode.
You can't even take your kid to get socks or light bulbs without him whining for you to buy him something -- seemingly anything. In-The-Moment Fix: Before you go on any shopping trip, inform your child that you'll be hitting the mall to, say, buy gifts for his cousins. "Engage him in the process," says Lerner. "Ask him what his cousin Jane likes and which toy you should get her. Get him excited about buying for someone else." At the same time, make it clear that you won't be able to buy anything for him. Then, if your son throws a fit at the store, you can refer back to that conversation, and say something like "I know it's hard to be here when you're not getting anything, but that's the rule. Now, I really need your help finding something for Jane." Let's be honest: That might not be enough to stop his whining. But steel yourself and stay strong. Caving in will only teach him that he will eventually get his way if he complains loud or long enough.
Parenting: Creative Thanksgiving craft ideas
Long-Term Strategy: Your weekends may be errand time, but try to avoid spending all your family moments pushing a shopping cart. That way, your kids won't think acquiring stuff is the leisure-time norm. (Don't get us wrong, though: We know those flattering jeans are sometimes an absolute necessity!) Denver mom Beth Korin says she and her two boys, ages 7 and 9, frequently head to the library, an indoor pool, or a rock-climbing gym instead. "We try to think of things we can do that don't involve hanging out in stores," she says. Prepare kids for these events the same way you would for gifts ("We're going to have a big, delicious meal with all of your favorite foods, and then we're going to play games!"). The idea you want to get across is that having experiences can be just as exciting as accumulating things (if not more).
Your 6-year-old gobbles down the Teddy Grahams that another parent at the playground gives him. But when you prod him to say "Thank you," he won't. In-The-Moment Fix: It's easy to turn this "teachable moment" into a battle of wills -- one where you're repeating "I didn't hear you say thank you!" to your tantrum-ing child while the person he's supposed to thank is backing away in discomfort. But, explains Lerner, the fact that your son doesn't always say the words likely just means they haven't become a habit for him yet. "And getting into power struggles actually impedes the process," she says. So while you should definitely remind your kids to give thanks, it's best not to make a big deal about it if it doesn't happen.
Long-Term Strategy: Remind yourself to model grateful behavior. When your cookie-muncher goes silent, go ahead and say the necessary "Thank you so much!" for him. (At least until he gets older and can be counted on to follow your cues.) In your own everyday interactions, always offer warm thank-yous and praise to grocery store clerks, gas-station attendants, waiters, teachers -- anyone who's helpful to you or him. You may think your child isn't paying attention to those small moments, but he actually is.
Parenting: Great leftover turkey recipes
When you say no to a DS that, according to your daughter, "everyone at school" has, she complains that all her BFFs get cooler stuff than she does. In-The-Moment Fix: Sympathize with her frustration, but remind your daughter that, actually, many people don't have as much as she does. How? Begin a tradition of charity work and donating. Start simple: As young as age 3, children can be encouraged to go through their belongings and pick out items to donate, says Lerner. Every year after that, they can get more involved. Last year, Gabrielle Melchionda of Yarmouth, ME, and her two sons, ages 5 and 9, volunteered to decorate low-income homes for Christmas. "It was so nice to see all of the kids, mine and those who lived there, on their bellies coloring together," she says. "Later, my kids asked things like 'Was that the whole house?' It sparked conversation for months. It was an experience none of us will forget."
Long-Term Strategy: Expose your daughter to people from all walks of life. "We often try to shield our children from those who are less fortunate, but it's important that kids know how lucky they are," says Dale McGowan, a father of three in Atlanta and coauthor of Parenting Beyond Belief. So the next time you see a homeless person, pass a shelter, or read a story in the news about a needy family, he suggests, ask questions -- "Where do you think that man sleeps?" or "Can you imagine what it would be like not to have a home?" -- that get your kids to put themselves in someone else's shoes. (At the same time, assure them that your family will always have a place to call home.) You'll be surprised -- and pleased -- at how often kids are moved to want to help.
Bonus mom advice: Don't diss gifts yourself as long as your little one is around. In fact, make a point of talking about the redeeming qualities of even that hideous necklace from your mother-in-law--how shiny! "You have to model gratitude if you want your child to practice it, too," points out Janette B. Benson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the University of Denver.
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Copyright 2011 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. | <urn:uuid:a1ebc085-0a3a-43be-8f6a-1174e9c8566f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/23/living/parenting-grateful-child/index.html?hpt=hp_c1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974287 | 2,549 | 1.53125 | 2 |
10 essential kitchen tools for healthy eating
By Jordan Laio, Networx
Cooking at home is a huge step toward eating healthier. You are in control of the ingredients and you choose how your food is prepared. You might be discouraged by marketing claims that you need a $500 do-it-all blender to cook healthier and to lose weight. I've been cooking for health for years and I run a natural pickling company, and I still don't have a $500 do-it-all blender in my home kitchen.
Here is a list of essential items for cooking healthy food at home. While it's fun to augment the items on this list with things like a food mill or a mortar and pestle, you can certainly get by with an uncluttered kitchen stocked with just these essentials.
Wooden Cutting Board
A healthy kitchen is nothing without a good cutting board. A large board is essential for chopping veggies and cutting fish and meat. Wood is the best because it harbors less bacteria than plastic and dulls knives slower than other materials like glass, although some people prefer plastic or glass for their ability to withstand dish washing machines. Maple is one of the best woods but can be pricey. Bamboo is common and affordable. The experts recommend applying food-grade mineral oil about once a month to keep a wood cutting board in good shape.
Cast Iron Skillet
Cast iron, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Cast iron cookware is more dynamic than pretty much every other cooking material out there (although the original miraculous CorningWare dishes are a close second). Cast iron can be used on the stove and in the oven. When properly seasoned, cast iron is just as non-stick as modern “non-stick” skillets, except without the questionable chemicals known to occasionally leach cancer-causing agents. It is heavy duty and can literally survive a lifetime of use and is often passed down through generations (or can be found at garage sales). They are very affordable (Lodge 8-inch skillets go for around $10-$20). Oh, and they're great for sauteing and stir-frying (or whatever else you want to use your skillet for).
Metal Mixing Bowls
At least one large mixing bowl is essential for the healthy home cook, although medium and small bowls definitely come in handy. Use mixing bowls for whipping up salad dressings, mixing your whole wheat dough, soaking potatoes, or many other tasks. Stainless steel makes the cut above other materials because it is lightweight, non-breakable, and easy to clean. Glass also works well. Plastic is more likely to absorb smells and flavors and deteriorate over time.
The wooden spoon is the humble servant of the kitchen. It hasn't evolved much since people learned to cook and needed to stir their pots. It still serves that purpose.
Totally essential! A good, sharp chef's knife makes cutting and chopping all that farmers market produce so much more enjoyable. And don't think you have to bust the bank buying a knife. I own Victorinox and Global chef's knives (the 8-inch Victorinox goes for about $25 on Amazon.com, the Global for about $110, and both have a lot of fans) which are both absolutely wonderful. Since every brand of knife is made differently, you should try holding a few knives in your hand before you buy to get a feel for them. A good knife should feel natural in your hand (consider factors like weight and size of handle).
A metal colander can serve multiple functions in a healthy kitchen. Use it to rinse veggies; use it as a steam basket; use it to drain pasta. I've also placed colanders over young transplants in my garden at night to protect them from slugs.
A Saucepan and a Stockpot
A saucepan with a heavy lid is a necessary kitchen item, period, whether you're cooking for health or not. But it definitely facilitates the cooking of whole grains. The larger stockpot is necessary for making excellent stocks and stews. A large stock pot is also useful for canning or beer brewing, if your cooking escapades ever get to that point.
Mason jars are excellent for storage of all kinds of food. They can be used for brewing kefir or kombucha, for making pickles and jams, or for storing beans or noodles or spices. They are affordable, usually less than a dollar each for quart jars, and are easy to clean. I suggest wide-mouth mason jars since it's easier to work with the contents. I also suggest investing in plastic caps if you're working with acidic foods like kefir or pickles -- otherwise, the acids will wear down the tin lid pretty quickly.
One good glass measuring cup is essential if you're following any kind of recipes or keeping track of your portions. The four-cup size is probably most useful, but a combination of a four-cup and one-cup capacity is best.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:443cc010-29b6-4f2a-bb11-7cacb8b55733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ktxs.com/lifestyle/homesolutions/kitchens/10-essential-kitchen-tools-for-healthy-eating/-/15127604/15324554/-/view/print/-/kjn54cz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951053 | 1,053 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Sorry, middle class. The VAT may be inevitable.January 14, 2013: 10:21 AM ET
If the government fails to enact structural reforms in spending, an entirely new source of revenue will be needed. The most likely one is a value-added tax that would crush the middle class.
FORTUNE -- You can't blame middle-income Americans for wondering whether the new "fiscal cliff" deal really protects them from big tax increases in the future. That's essentially what President Obama promised in championing the hike in rates for high-earners signed into law on January 2. Still, the politicians and pundits keep talking about how our steep deficits and mountainous debt will rise even after the new revenue is counted. So it's only natural for the folks to ask the obvious question: Now that the affluent are paying far more, where's the extra cash supposed to come from?
The answer is that America's teachers, nurses, truck drivers, police officers, computer programmers and construction workers should indeed be worried. To understand why, it's important to carefully analyze the most likely trajectory of tomorrow's budgets. To get the best view of our fiscal future, I spoke to Congressional aides who recently prepared new forecasts incorporating projected receipts from the recent tax increases. Those projections closely track the numbers prepared by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in March and August of last year, when the fresh revenues from high-earners are included.
On January 4th, the CBO posted a blog predicting that the new legislation would lower deficits over the next decade by a modest $600 billion to $700 billion, compared to the projected shortfall if all the Bush tax cuts remained in place. The forecasts in this story generally reflect that estimate.
Charting the path of future spending and revenues points to four conclusions. First, over the next several years, the numbers that are now so troubling, including deficits, debt and spending as a share of GDP, may substantially improve. That's by no means certain, since it depends on a convergence of low interest rates, a strong economy, and other unpredictable factors. But it's highly possible, or even likely.
Second, this interim period of calm will not last long. By 2018, the budget picture -- in the absence of major structural reforms to entitlements -- will start unraveling at shocking speed. Anticipating disaster, global investors could shun U.S. Treasurys and drive up interest rates, igniting a crisis.
Third, the budget-blowup scenario can only be averted by starting to reform Medicare and Social Security soon, since waiting eight or ten years would require lowering a hammer on a new bulge of baby boomers who will by then either be receiving benefits, or getting close to eligibility. So the longer our politicians wait, the more politically difficult, and more unlikely, entitlement reform becomes.
Fourth, if America fails to enact historic, structural reforms in spending, an entirely new source of revenue will be needed. And it's likely to be enacted in haste and near-panic, as the only option to forestalling a crisis. "The gap between revenues and outlays will be simply too large," says J.D. Foster, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a former budget official under President George W. Bush. "Three points of GDP need to be closed to make budgets sustainable. Either government spending gets back near where it used to be, or we'll need an completely new type of tax."
The new levy will need to be big, so big that the most probable choice is a European-style value-added tax or VAT. That looming revenue machine is the phantom in the room, the tax that's still invisible to most Americans, but that threatens precisely the group that's supposed to emerge from all the deal-making as the Great Unthreatened, our middle class.
As background, it's important to understand the current fiscal picture, and how it limits our freedom to maneuver in the future -- especially because borrowing levels are already so high. Today, government spending is running at almost 23% of GDP, compared to an average of 20% from 1989 to 2008. Because of the meager expansion, tax revenues have fallen to 16% of national income, far below the long-term average of over 18%. The shortfall has saddled us with a near-7% budget deficit, and driven the burden of debt-to-GDP to 73%, well below European levels, but nearing the danger zone.
Here's how the picture is poised to brighten. From 2013 to 2017, tax revenues will rise sharply. The catalysts are the continuing recovery, and the new taxes on the affluent. At the same time, spending should be tightly controlled because of one overriding factor: A gigantic fall in "discretionary" outlays, funds that need to be appropriated each year, everything from defense spending to the budget for the Department of Education. One forecast by a respected Congressional aide predicts that discretionary outlays will drop from 7.7% to just over 5% by GDP over the next decade. That's a decline of as much as 20% adjusted for inflation.
The reason the spending numbers are plausible is because the Sequestration Act of 2012 requires big, automatic reductions in defense and other discretionary outlays. The Republicans won't abandon Sequestration without big reforms to entitlements, a possibility that looks increasingly remote.
To be sure, this scenario assumes that the economy grows at a robust 4% from 2014 to 2017 and that interest rates remain subdued. If that favorable climate prevails, spending in 2017 will drop to 21.5% of GDP, deficits will shrink to around 3.5%, and debt will stand in the mid-70% range, not far from today's figure.
The descent starts in 2018. In the absence of entitlement reform, it's totally predictable, fully quantifiable, and extremely steep. Spending will start to explode as an aging population swells Social Security and Medicare benefits, at the same time revenues remain flat as a share of national income.
Revenues won't save the day. The forecast I'm using foresees receipts of 19.6% of GDP in 2018, well above the historical norm. Neither Republicans nor Democrats think that revenues can rise beyond that level with the current tax system that's heavily dependent on income taxes. In other words, we'll run out of room to raise more money.
As revenues rise with the overall economy, and no more, expenditures soar about 0.4% a year faster than GDP -- for many, many years to come. By 2028, spending would absorb close to 25.5% of national income. Without tax increases or action on entitlements, debt-to-GDP would exceed 100% and soaring interest payments would threaten America with insolvency. This is the definition of a chronic, structural deficit, one that isn't caused by a recession, and persists even when growth is robust.
To avoid a crisis, taxes would need to start rising sharply in the middle part of this decade. The U.S. can support 3% budget deficits without a disastrous increase in debt, since the economy will potentially grow at that rate. So by the mid-2020s, we'd need to have a system in place that collects an extra 3 points of GDP in revenues. That's the 25.5% spending rate, minus around 22.5%, approximately representing the 19.6% share of revenues plus the 3% deficit.
How big is that number? By 2028, it would total around $1 trillion. Raising an extra $1 trillion would require a 37% rise in income taxes. Hiking tax rates on anyone, high-earners or the middle class, won't remotely collect that kind of money. Once again, the 19.6% of GDP is about the limit of what the current tax system can provide, given that marginal tax rates far higher than today's have seldom collected more than that share.
It gets worse. To hold deficits at 3% of GDP, revenues, meaning tax receipts, would need to rise by 5.4% a year, by my calculation. That's 5.4% after inflation, assuring a ballooning of the public sector and a shrinking of the private economy that funds it.
This crunch may not happen. Sweeping new measures that slow the growth of entitlement spending is the sole alternative. To work, the reforms need to start soon. By 2019, all baby boomers will be age 55 or older. America will be running out of time for reform. Curbing Medicare and Social Security at that point would mean slashing benefits from tens of millions more Americans who will already depend on monthly checks and affordable medical care, or are counting on those benefits in a few years (eligibility for Social Security starts at age 62). The appeal of leaving today's benefits in place for folks nearing retirement, a staple of all reform plans, would be gone, greatly diminishing the opportunities for an overhaul.
If Washington gridlock persists, the big new tax is a virtual certainty. The most probable choice will be a VAT. Since the VAT is assessed on things people buy, not their incomes, it falls heavily on the middle class. Suddenly, the issue is sneaking into the fiscal debate. A January 7th editorial in the New York Times called for a VAT. The same week, in a piece criticizing the nomination of Jack Lew for Treasury Secretary, the Wall Street Journal editorial page groused that President Obama's spending plans will saddle America with a VAT by default.
This isn't what the middle class was promised. But the numbers, even assuming good days ahead for the economy, point inexorably in that direction. We don't know what crisis will enable the phantom to take charge. But every day of inaction brings that crisis nearer. | <urn:uuid:8748b484-329b-4b6b-91a2-d89e6210faf6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/14/vat-middle-class/?section=money_topstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949943 | 2,004 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Canada provides the United States with tens of millions of barrels of oil that otherwise would have come from Saudi Arabia, the misogynistic sheik-ocracy that most of the 9/11 hijackers called home. But leftists don’t care about that. They’ve recently convinced huge American companies like Bed, Bath & Beyond to boycott Canadian oil. Activists say the oil sands devastate the landscape, cause cancer, cheat aboriginals out of land and revenues, and are a major source of toxic unicorn farts CO2 emissions.
Too bad none of that is true. And you should care because getting your oil from a friendly neighbor instead of a dubious Middle Eastern “ally” or unstable African dictatorship is a matter of national security.
Now that “climate change” has lost the public’s interest, you’ll be hearing a lot more about the evils of Canadian “blood” oil. After all, activists have to invent a new crisis to keep those donations rolling in. (Greenpeace needs to pull in $700,000 a DAY just to keep its lights on.)
As the campaign against the oil sands ramps up, and the junk science starts making the papers, be sure to arm yourself with the facts.
What follows are five leftist lies about Canada’s oil sands : | <urn:uuid:8502df82-bed4-497d-8861-df304c4cc900> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2010/kathy-shaidle/5-leftist-lies-about-the-best-source-of-oil-on-earth-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946656 | 272 | 1.617188 | 2 |
On Monday night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert addressed the online resource Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can read or edit. Colbert praised Wikipedia for "wikiality," the reality that exists if you make something up and enough people agree with you - it becomes reality. Colbert's subsequent examples to prove "wikiality" would cause chaos on the site, and lead an administrator to subsequently block his account.
In the segment, Colbert logs on to the Wikipedia article about his show to find out whether he usually refers to Oregon as "California's Canada or Washington's Mexico." Upon learning that he has referred to Oregon as both, he demonstrates how easy it is to disregard both references and put in a completely new one (Oregon is Idaho's Portugal), declaring it "the opinion I've always held, you can look it up."
Colbert goes on to declare that he doesn't believe George Washington had slaves.
If I want to say he didn't that's my right, and now, thanks to Wikipedia *taps keyboard* it's also a fact.
Here's the fun part - Colbert actually did this. The Wikipedia articles on his show and George Washington were both edited by the user Stephencolbert to reflect the changes he declared on air as he tapped at his computer around 23:35 UTC - which is 6:35pm on the East Coast, during the taping of his show, hours before it aired.
It gets better.
Colbert then urged his audience to find the Wikipedia entry on elephants and create an entry that stated their population had tripled in the last six months, a fact he freely stated to not know if it was "actually true," with his sidebar stating "it isn't." Guess what happened next?
Scores of internet users took Colbert's bait, repeatedly vandalizing approximately 20 articles on elephants before all being placed under a lock. The move also subsequently caused Wikipedia administrator Tawker to block Stephen Colbert from the website, reportedly to verify his identity. Either Tawker is incapable of checking the above log times that corroborate Colbert, or, more likely, he just wants to be mentioned on Stephen's show (as evidenced by his notes on the block and blog entry).
All this trouble over a man who, as his user page noted, is a 'defender of truth.'
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the craziest fucking thing I have ever heard." | <urn:uuid:ceddb312-d93f-4f0a-ac55-f33f2e0cfd84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spring.newsvine.com/_news/2006/08/01/307864-stephen-colbert-causes-chaos-on-wikipedia-gets-blocked-from-site?pc=25&sp=50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979287 | 494 | 1.75 | 2 |
Site Seer: World (Wide Web) Cup
Web posted at: 9:00 AM EDT
By CNN Interactive Producer Dave Ragals
(CNN) -- It's the biggest event in the world's most popular sport. So it should be no surprise that the World Wide Web hosts countless sites dedicated to the World Cup. Since it is such a global event (a record 172 countries registered to participate this year), sites can be found in almost any language. Some offer multiple versions -- mostly in English, Spanish and French.
Whether you want scores, schedules, background information or live audio, nowhere will you find as much of what you're looking for than on the Web. Here's just a sample.
The official site of France '98 is available in both English and French. It contains the latest news, mostly from the AFP news agency, and team biographies of all 32 qualifiers, including the United States, defending champs Brazil and the host team from France. You can also see profiles on all 10 venue locations, with travel information, city directories and maps, as well as purchase officially licensed merchandise from the online store. Another nice feature is a Flash schedule with all the games from the first Stage 1 match on June 10 to the finals on July 12.
The World Cup Cafe is another place to get all the Cup-related news and scores. Plus, it has a virtual gameroom with weekly trivia and "Spot the Ball" quiz, in which you're shown a photo and have to guess where the ball is supposed to be. It's kind of a soccer-themed "Where's Waldo" in reverse.
Perhaps the highlight of the World Cup Cafe is World Cup Radio with daily and weekly audio updates plus the national anthems of all 32 teams.
If you're stuck at work or school, or anywhere else without a television, you can listen to live broadcasts at World Cup 1998 with "The Voice of Football," Jonathan Pearce. It also features live chat with Pearce, plus match previews, schedules and line-ups. It also has a "GoalFlash" pop-up window that keeps you up-to-date on all the Cup news while you surf elsewhere.
CNN/SI has its own World Cup section with news and scores updated 24 hours a day, plus schedules and player profiles. You can also join discussions with fans from around the world on the World Cup Message Board. And it has a "USA '94 Flashback," with stories about the 1994 World Cup, and a "USA '94 Photo Gallery."
All the matches will be broadcast live on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, so you can go to ESPN to see their coverage schedule. If you don't have cable and need satellite information, or if you prefer to watch Spanish broadcasts on Univision, you can get all the schedules and satellite coordinates from Soccer TV. It also shows schedules of World Cup-related features and preview shows on several English and Spanish networks.
For soccer fans around the world, there's no better time than the World Cup. If you're among those ranks, or if you're a complete novice looking to learn more about soccer, you can find plenty of information about the world's most popular sport on the World Wide Web.External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive
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Read our privacy guidelines. | <urn:uuid:c4bd0108-36bc-4982-81c0-e9eec971b8cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9806/05/site.seer/index.html?_s=PM:TECH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947358 | 701 | 1.742188 | 2 |
To much general rejoicing, Charles Taylor was convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in a long-awaited judgment delivered on 26 April 2012. The delays in issuing the judgment are inexcusable. And we are in fact still waiting for the real judgment. Instead, the judges have given us a 44-page summary.
The Court’s press release on the judgment makes the simplistic assertion that ‘Charles Taylor was convicted on all 11 counts‘. This somewhat distorts the reality, because much of the Prosecutor’s case was not in fact upheld in the decision.
The press release also boasts that ‘Charles Taylor is the first head of state to be indicted, tried and convicted by an international tribunal.’ This is not accurate. Admiral Doenitz, who succeeded Hitler as head of state of the Third Reich in April 1945, was indicted, tried and convicted by the International Military Tribunal.
Many Prosecution Charges were Unproven
The summary of the judgment begins by reviewing various atrocities perpetrated in Sierra Leone during 1998 and 1999 associated with the civil war. As a general rule, it concludes that they were indeed committed. This is hardly surprising. It is consistent with the earlier decisions of the Court as well as the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The issue was not of course whether the atrocities were committed but the role played in them by Taylor.
It has long been part of the lore about the Sierra Leone conflict that Charles Taylor was its mastermind behind. But this is not what the judgment finds:
62. … Contrary to the Prosecution’s submissions, the evidence did not establish that prior to 1996, Taylor, Sankoh [leader of the Revolutionary United Front] and Dr. Manneh [of The Gambia] participated in any common plan involving the crimes alleged in the Indictment, nor in fact, that the three men even met together. Furthermore, the evidence was that during the pre-indictment period Sankoh operated independently of the Accused, and that while he relied at times on Taylor’s guidance and support, Sankoh did not take orders from the Accused.63. During the pre-Indictment period the Accused provided the RUF with a training camp in Liberia, instructors, recruits and material support, including food and other supplies. However, again contrary to the Prosecution’s submissions, the evidence did not establish that the RUF were under the superior authority of the Accused or the NPFL chain of command, or that they were instructed in NPFL terror tactics.64. The Accused supported the invasion of Sierra Leone in March 1991. NPFL troops actively participated in the invasion, but the Prosecution failed to prove that the Accused participated in the planning of the invasion. The Prosecution also failed to prove that the support of the Accused for the invasion of Sierra Leone was undertaken pursuant to a common purpose to terrorize the civilian population of Sierra Leone. Rather, the evidence shows that the Accused and Sankoh had a common interest in fighting common enemies, namely ULIMO, a Liberian insurgency group in Sierra Leone, and the Sierra Leonean Government forces, which supported ULIMO.
By the time of the attacks on Freetown and elsewhere in Sierra Leone during 1998 and early 1999, Charles Taylor’s alliance with the RUF and the AFRC seems to be beyond dispute. The judgment reviews how he provided assistance in various forms, including small numbers of soldiers as well as sometimes substantial quantities of weapons and ammunition. Some of this was paid for in diamonds. Again, nothing really surprising here. The big question – and the Trial Chamber only really begins to consider this at page 31 - is ‘Knowledge of the Accused of Crimes Committed in Sierra Leone’. The issue, for the Trial Chamber, is not whether Taylor ordered, directed or commanded the atrocities perpetrated in Sierra Leone - this is not established by the judgment - but rather whether he knew that they were taking place.
As the Chamber notes, public reports indicated that the rebel forces with which Taylor was aligned were committing various atrocities, including unlawful killings, sexual violence, physical violence, looting, conscription and use of child soldiers, abduction, terrorism, and other atrocities. It was ‘public knowledge’, says the Trial Chamber, so it is not a difficult leap to concluded that Charles Taylor also knew.
The Prosecutor failed to prove that Charles Taylor was the guiding spirit behind the rebel groups in Sierra Leone. It even failed to prove that the troops from Liberia that joined the insurgents in Sierra Leone were under his control: ‘the Trial Chamber finds that even if they were sent to Sierra Leone by the Accused, there is insufficient evidence to find beyond a reasonable doubt that they remained under the effective command and control of the Accused once in Sierra Leone’ (para. 140).
The Prosecutor had also alleged that Taylor was part of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’ whose purpose was ‘to take any actions necessary to gain and exercise political power and control over the territory of Sierra Leone, in particular the diamond mining areas. The natural resources of Sierra Leone, in particular the diamonds, were to be provided to persons outside Sierra Leone in return for assistance in carrying out the joint criminal enterprise.’ (para. 23 of the indictment of 7 March 2003).
The summary of the judgment says the Prosecutor failed to prove this. (para. 144).
Taylor stands convicted because he provided significant assistance to the various rebel groups within Sierra Leone, knowing that they were perpetrating atrocities in the course of their campaigns. Consequently, he is found guilty of ‘aiding and abetting’.
What did Taylor Know?
What emerges from the judgment of 26 April 2010 is a more modest vision of Taylor’s involvement in the Sierra Leone conflict. He was assisting combatant factions in full knowledge that they were perpetrating atrocities. But the claim that he was the evil genius who manipulated the war throughout the 1990s stands unproven.
This assessment by the Trial Chamber is more consistent with the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One of the intriguing features of the transitional justice mechanisms in Sierra Leone is that the two main bodies, the Special Court and the Truth Commission, have not necessarily shared the same vision of the conflict. The Court has focused on external factors, blaming Taylor, Ghaddafy and others for the civil war. The Truth Commission, on the other hand, tended to downplay the role of external actors like Taylor and proposed an analysis that found the main cause of the conflict to be the decades of tyranny and corruption within Sierra Leone. With its more modest perspective on the involvement of Taylor, the 26 April 2012 judgment confirms the narrative of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Trial Chamber rejects the joint criminal enterprise thesis. We shall have to await the full judgment to assess properly the reasoning of the Chamber. From the summary, it seems this was mainly based upon the facts of Taylor’s own personal role rather than the existence of the joint criminal enterprise. Elsewhere, including earlier posts on this blog, I have expressed concern about the breadth of a joint criminal enterprise notion that is ultimately premised on an enterprise that is not in fact criminal. Trying to overthrow a government and take power is not an offence under international criminal law. Facilitating the job of the Prosecutor by convicting individuals for acts that may have been a foreseeable consequence of such an enterprise – where the enterprise is not unlawful in itself – and in the absence of evidence that the accused actually knew of the crimes or intended that they be committed is a bridge too far. It unacceptably stretches first principles about guilt in criminal law.
The conclusion of the Trial Chamber in Charles Taylor seems based on uncontroversial principles. He or she who provides significant assistance to a participant in a conflict knowing that the participant is perpetrating atrocities against civilians is guilty of aiding and abetting such crimes. This is straightforward. And it leads in an interesting direction.
Atrocities were perpetrated on all sides in the Sierra Leone conflict. This emerges from the case law of the Special Court, as well as from the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was notorious at the time, in 1998 and 1999. So what are we to make of those who supported the other side in the conflict? For example, the Blair government and the United Kingdom provided assistance and support to the pro-government forces. The pro-government forces had their own sinister militias, involved in rapes, recruitment of child soldiers, amputations, cannibalism and other atrocities. Two of those involved were convicted by the Court and a third, who was a minister in the government supported by the UK, died before the trial completed. What is the difference between Blair and Taylor in this respect?
Moving beyond Sierra Leone, can we not blame the French government for aiding and abetting genocide, given its support for the racist Rwandan regime in 1993 and 1994? The crimes of the regime were well-publicised, not only by an NGO commission of inquiry but also by Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations. And yet the French continued to provide assistance, in personnel, arms and ammunition, to the Habyarimana regime.
What about those who supported the various sides in the war in Bosnia? Or in Sri Lanka? Are American officials who backed Saddam Hussein when he perpetrated atrocities in Iran during the 1980s also guilty of aiding and abetting in war crimes and crimes against humanity? What of those western states that continued to bolster the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, when they were fully aware of the racist system that has been characterised as a crime against humanity.
It takes little imagination to appreciate the ramifications of the conviction of Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting.
The future of ‘joint criminal enterprise’
It may well be that the Appeals Chamber will restore the joint criminal enterprise charge against Charles Taylor. Only time will tell. When the theory first emerged in 1999, in a ruling of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, many were concerned that it stretched the net of criminal guilt too far. Under the so-called 'third form' of joint criminal enterprise (or JCE III), individuals would be convicted not only for serious crimes that they knew of or intended but for those that were objectively foreseeable, to the extent that they belonged to a ‘joint criminal enterprise’ with others. In Bosnia, this ‘joint criminal enterprise’ involve ethnic cleansing, an international crime in its own right.
But the indictments of the Special Court for Sierra Leone took this a step further by charging an ‘enterprise’ that was not even criminal. So what had been known in the jargon as JCE III mutated into JE III. Then the disease spread to the International Criminal Court, where it has reemerged as the doctrine of co-perpetration. There is a manifestation of this in the recent judgment of the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court in Lubanga.
The majority of the Trial Chamber concluded that Lubanga had been part of a ‘plan’, and that as a result he could be convicted of crimes perpetrated by others even in the absence of evidence that he actually knew of them or intended them. Because he was part of a ‘plan’, he could be convicted of acts perpetrated by others to the extent that there was ‘a sufficient risk that, if events follow the ordinary course’ they would take place. Accordingly,
984. In the view of the Majority of the Chamber, the prosecution is not required to prove that the plan was specifically directed at committing the crime in question (the conscription, enlistment or use of children), nor does the plan need to have been intrinsically criminal as suggested by the defence. However, it is necessary, as a minimum, for the prosecution to establish the common plan included a critical element of criminality, namely that, its implementation embodied a sufficient risk that, if events follow the ordinary course, a crime will be committed.
The reference to a 'critical element of criminality' is important, but the scope of a 'plan' that is not in itself criminal but that has a 'critical element of criminality' is simply too nebulous. Judge Fulford dissented from the Majority. While his views have been presented as being more friendly to the Prosecutor, I do not find this to be the case. In particular, he does not endorse the inquiry about ‘sufficient risk’, which he notes is not in the Statute and has only been added by some of the decisions.
Drama in the Courtroom
Delivery of the decision in Charles Taylor was associated with a most unprecedented development. It seems that when the reading of the judgment concluded, the reserve or stand-by judge, Malick Sow, began to express his dissent, and his view that Taylor should be acquitted. Here is the account provided by Kirsty Sutherland of the International Criminal Law Bureau:
In an unexpected turn of events, as Justice Lussick (Presiding), Justice Doherty and Justice Sebutinde rose to leave the courtroom after delivering the verdict, Justice Sow addressed the Court:“The only moment where a Judge can express his opinion is during the deliberations or in the courtroom, and, pursuant to the Rules, when there are no serious deliberations, the only place left for me is the courtroom. I won’t get — because I think we have been sitting for too long but for me I have my dissenting opinion and I disagree with the findings and conclusions of the other Judges, because for me under any mode of liability, under any accepted standard of proof, the guilt of the accused from the evidence provided in this trial is not proved beyond reasonable doubt by the Prosecution. And my only worry is that the whole system is not consistent with all the principles we know and love, and the system is not consistent with all the values of international criminal justice, and I’m afraid the whole system is under grave danger of just losing all credibility, and I’m afraid this whole thing is headed for failure.”Hearing the voice of their counterpart did not deter Justices Lussick, Doherty and Sebutinde from walking out. Justice Sow’s microphone immediately cut out and a curtain was drawn across the public gallery. Nonetheless, he persisted to air his views to those present, unaided by a microphone.
There is obviously more to this story. Perhaps readers of the blog can contribute.
Since writing these words, Diane Amann has referred me to a more thorough description of the events on IntLawGrrls.
Since writing these words, Diane Amann has referred me to a more thorough description of the events on IntLawGrrls.
Thanks to Jean Allain and Yvonne McDermott. | <urn:uuid:0f38120b-4f5c-4ff1-ae49-36611328c329> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.com/2012/04/charles-taylor-judgment-suggests-more.html?showComment=1336128360571 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971501 | 3,063 | 1.617188 | 2 |
College by the sea to College on the hill
Plas Gogerddan, ancestral home of the Pryse family, is purchased and becomes the permanent home of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station.
Pantycelyn Hall opened.
On 8 August, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Welsh Plant Breeding Station at Plas Gogerddan.
Department of Economics is established.
Student numbers top 2000.
Government grants and handsome donations from well-wishers enable the University to erect new buildings for Biology, Physical Sciences, the Faculty of Economics and Social Studies, the Faculty of Law, Geography, Geology and Rural Studies, as well as halls of residence.
The iconic physical sciences building with its concave facade appears on a national postage stamp.
Ceredigion becomes a Welsh hall for male students, and Neuadd Davies Bryan becomesWelsh hall for female students.
The Welsh Agricultural College is established with David Morris as its first Principal. In an unusual arrangement, the College was financed through a joint committee composed of representatives of all the Welsh local authorities. Its original mission was to provide vocational education in agriculture and for a number of years it provided national and higher national diploma courses before later diversifying its provision to include courses in Countryside Management and Equine Studies. A degree scheme in Agriculture, offered jointly with the University’s Department of Agricultural Sciences, followed in 1982.
Department of Computer Science is established.
The Great Hall is completed.
Gwendolen Rees is awarded a Personal Chair in the Department of Zoology and becomes the first woman working in Wales to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. A founding member of the British Society of Parasitology, Rees was an acknowledged expert in trematodes and cestodes.
'The greatest triumph ever achieved by Aberystwyth rugby came far away in New Zealand.' Both captain, S. J. Dawes and coach Carwyn James (Welsh 1950), learnt much of their rugby on Vicarage playing fields.
J. Gareth Morris, previously a research fellow at Oxford and a Rockerfeller fellow in California, is appointed Professor of Microbiology. In recognition of the excellence of his research in microbial biochemistry and physiology, Morris was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1988. He served as a member of the Universities Funding Council and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in 1991.
The Great Hall, the Bell Tower and the Concourse are awarded various prizes, including the R.I.B.A. Gold Medal for Architecture in Wales.
Department of Art is established. The only such department in the University of Wales.
Department of Drama is founded. The only such department in Wales.
Department of Botany and Microbiology is established.
The Hugh Owen Library is completed.
|1977||There are eight Fellows of the Royal Society on the academic staff at Aberystwyth.|
The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies is established in the Old College.
RIBA Commendation and SCONUL Design Award for the Hugh Owen Building.
The External Degree through the medium of Welsh is established. Based on the internal syllabus, the scheme offers degrees in Welsh, Welsh History, Theatre, Film and Television Studies and Celtic Studies, for mature students studying on a part-time basis.
Responsibility for The Welsh Plant Breeding Station is transferred from the University to the new AFRC Institute of Grassland and Animal Production (IGAP).
Institute of Biological Sciences established.
The College of Librarianship Wales (CLW) became part of the University and formed the Department of Information Studies.
The Welsh Agricultural College joins the University and merges with the Department of Agricultural Sciences to form the Welsh Institute of Rural Studies, with Michael Haines appointed as its first Director. WIRS was later renamed the Institute of Rural Sciences.
The Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies is established.
The Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences is established.
The Department of Sport and Exercise Science is established.
Aberystwyth University is granted independent status and the right to award its own degrees by the Privy Council.
The Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research merges with the Institutes of Biological Sciences and Rural Sciences, to form the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS).
A new Department of Psychology is established.
Aberystwyth is placed fourth in the UK for Teaching and Learning, according to the Times Higher Education's Student Experience Survey. The poll also shows that Aberystwyth University offers the best all-round student experience in Wales, with an overall ranking of 6th across the UK. | <urn:uuid:c338c789-c374-4583-8de1-33190c81b7c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/university/history/timelinepart3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930378 | 972 | 1.78125 | 2 |
I spent much of last December writing a preview of PS3 zombie shocker, Possession, for the Official PlayStation 2 magazine. The game is a mouth-watering mix of survival horror adventure and squad-based shooter, with you commanding a ravenous undead army against a city stuffed with civilians, cops and soldiers.
The magazine is now out on the shelves, so I can finally talk about meeting up with Possession developer, Volatile, and chatting about what it's like to write games for Sony's next-gen hardware. At the time, the team were working with an emulator rather than a full PS3 dev kit, but already seemed comfortable with the peculiarities of the multi-processor behemoth.
Of course every developer is going to have a different take on PS3, but this is what one of them had to say...
First of all, as with Killzone developer Guerrilla in a recent online Q&A sesh, they were happy to point out that PS3 is not as complicated to write for as we've all been led to believe. Apparently, the machine's use of Open GL as its graphics API means that anyone who's ever written games for the PC will be intimately familiar with the set-up. In fact, PS3 employs a cut-down version named Open GL ES, which is even simpler - as Volatile's lead PS3 programmer, Lyndon Homewood explained:
"ES is designed for things like set-top boxes and mobile phones, where you want the fundamental graphics but don't need some of the fringe stuff that Open GL has. Because you've got that on PS3, it's going to be much easier than the PS2 to get something up and running - there are hundreds of books out there for it, so you can do your background reading. All the documentation is there."
We also got onto talking about how PS3 will deal with Cg - a version of the programming language C, which allows developers to code for advanced graphics processing units, specifically in the area of 3D shaders. (You can read more about Cg here and here). You may be completely up to spec on how this works, but Lyndon gives a decent beginners guide if not:
"Cg gives you a standard documented API for programming graphics chips. The main two segregations of Cg programming are the vertex shader and pixel shader. With the vertex shader you can act on 3D models at the vertex level, so for each triangle you can do something on each corner and then everything in-between is interpolated. So if you want to make your whole shape bigger, you can just push all the vertices out a bit. In this way you could, say, morph your character into a giant just by scaling up all the verts. It's a lot easier to get to that point in the graphics pipeline.
"And then you've got the pixel shaders. When you render each triangle on screen the GPU asks whether you want to do something to each individual pixel you render... so at this point you could run some sort of mathematical algorithm on each individual pixel - perhaps a lighting effect like high dynamic range lighting (a rough Wikipedia entry on HDR lighting can be found here). And that wasn't possible on PS2.
"All of this is already available and won't be a massive leap from what you're seeing on PCs with high-end graphics cards. But obviously on PS3, you've got eight chips to spread the processing cost over - the main PowerPC chip and seven SPE chips. In a PC, there's just one CPU, two in a dual processor machine. Having an eight CPU multi-processor system in your living room is pretty flash.
"At the end of the day it's just a multi-processor architecture. If you can get something running on eight threads of a PC CPU, you can get it running on eight processors on a PS3 - it's not massively different. There is a small 'gotcha' in there though. The main processor can access all the machine's video memory, but each of the seven SPE chips has access only to its own 256k of onboard memory - so if you have, say, a big mesh to process, it'll be necessary to stream it through a small amount of memory - you'd have to DMA it up to your cell chip and then process a little chunk, then DMA the next chunk, so you won't be able to jump around the memory as easily, which I guess you will be able to do on the Xbox 360.
"The graphics capabilities of PS3 will, I think, be slightly above the absolutely top-end graphics cards on the PC, but you've got much more processing power in the box so you're going to see a lot more physics, a lot more generated geometry. With water ripples, for example - they're pretty much algorithms, you have a flat plane of triangles and you run some sort of mathematical algorithm over it to generate a surface rippling effect - well, you will have the processing power to do these sorts of generated geometry effects On PS3. You could actually put one chip aside just to do that..."
According to Homewood, the management of the SPE chips is going to be a major consideration. One way is to assign specific roles to each of the chips - get one handling physics, one working on AI, etc. This might sound tidy, but Volatile are not convinced - partly because certain gameplay events, like a massive shoot-out, are going to create spikes in demand for, say, animation, collision detection and rag doll physics. One SPU working alone on each of these elements won't be able to deal with such spikes efficiently. Also, there's the question of co-ordination:
"The way we're thinking of doing it ourselves is via a job queue. We'll stick the jobs we want to do into a queue on the main processor and then we'll get the SPEs to pull off a queue entry and process it whenever they're free. You want to make sure all of your processors are always running. If you give the chips specific jobs, you'll end up with a lot of them being idle - you won't get the maximum out of PS3 doing that unless you time everything perfectly, so that the time it takes to do the animation on the first chip is exactly the same amount of time to do the physics on the next chip, which is exactly the same length of time it takes to do all your AI on the next chip - I think that would be extremely problematic."
One last thing. Volatile reckon PS3 is going to be much better for HD cinematics than Xbox 360, thanks to its Blu-Ray storage medium. 20 minutes of HD-TV footage takes up around 4.7GB, so an Xbox 360 game would quickly run out of space. This is going to matter more in the coming years as movies and games merge and we see more film elements being brought across to games.
So there you go. PS3 is relatively easy to program for if you have experience with high-end PCs - certainly more straightforward than PS2 with its proprietary graphics APIs. We've also heard lots of talk - from various studios - that Sony's developer support will be a lot stronger with PS3 (it's already much, much better with PSP apparently). Time will tell.
For now, we have screenshots, demos and promises, we have enthusiastic developers taking their first glance at the next generation of Sony hardware. We don't have games. | <urn:uuid:6be7c30f-c50d-44a4-a3fd-b94e009c6791> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2006/jan/27/possessionand | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960297 | 1,547 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Physical strength, endurance, flexibility, adaptability, and mental discipline are all attributes of a true survivor. Unfortunately, they are also attributes that are often neglected by the average survivalist. The popular assumption is that if you have sizable food storage and can shoot straight, you are ready to rock-and-roll. Reality has some harsh lessons for those with this mindset. The first and most important weapon in any prepper’s arsenal is his own body; strong, healthy, and well taken care of. If a person’s body is left to decay, no amount of gear is going to save them in the middle of a crisis situation…
Hand-to-hand combat training is sometimes treated with cynicism amongst preppers who have spent all their lives enraptured in the world of firearms. The common retort is “Why use my hands when I have my Glock…?” Indeed. Why should we? Perhaps because one day we may not have a weapon in our possession during a dangerous circumstance. Should a survivalist simply give up because he loses his gun or he runs out of ammunition? I think not.
The concept of survival in the midst of collapse and calamity is not necessarily dependent on having all the right tools at all the right times. Sometimes, you have to improvise, and the only tools you can always count on are your hands, and your (hopefully well oiled and attuned) brain. Martial Arts training hones and refines these assets to perfection, and also teaches the mind to deal with the stresses and fears associated with combat. In fact, 95% of success in martial arts revolves around learning to accept the idea of someone trying to kill you, so that you can move past the terror of the scenario and deal with it calmly and logically. Adrenaline, tunnel vision, and unchecked emotion are the true enemies in any fight. We defeat ourselves long before our assailants ever touch us.
Another concept within martial arts that I find fascinating is the philosophy of Bushido, which is often mistaken as a brand of Eastern religion. Instead, it is a kind of warrior’s code; a way of dealing with adversity in one’s life. Struggling with obstacles whether self created, or created by others, requires balance and the ability to take control of the problem and apply one’s own terms instead of the terms other people try to set for you. It is about leading the battle, instead of being led, while staying true to your conscience. In the end, we should feel no need to prove anything to anyone but ourselves. Traditional martial arts still contain elements of Bushido within their methodology, and I believe such practitioners are some of the few people left in the world who operate on a legitimate warrior’s code; something we desperately need in our culture today.
I have studied multiple forms of martial arts for over 26 years, and have found many methods that would work well for the worst survival situations, and plenty that would be utterly useless. When I started my training classes for Liberty Movement individuals and families in Northwest Montana, my idea was to combine all the strategies that I felt were intuitive, easy to learn, and quick to utilize. My goal was to help students to become physically capable of self defense within a very short period of time, without running slapdash over important factors like mental strength and intelligent application. I feel that the program has done very well so far. The following is a list of styles that I use in my curriculum…
Shotokan Karate: Shotokan is a Japanese martial art using movements derived from defense methods common in Okinawa and streamlined for easier application. At first glance, Shotokan seems stiff and impractical, but this is not the case. Shotokan training is extremely intense, and the sparring matches can be brutal. Deep stances and sharp strikes train the body to hold ground even against a larger opponent. Shotokan practitioners can take physical damage unlike any other style I have seen beyond perhaps Thai Kickboxing. As the student advances, the stiffness disappears, and their strikes become coldly logical and precise, almost like a killer robot…….no….seriously. Shotokan is a perfect foundation art for beginners in self defense. If they can handle this style, they can handle anything…
Thai Kickboxing: Thai is world famous for its fast devastating steamroller type strikes and the ability of its practitioners to take a hit and keep on going. For a crisis situation, it is imperative that the survivalist be capable of absorbing and moving past the pain of a fight. In the street, it may be a matter of life and death, or it may be a drunken adolescent brawl. In a SHTF scenario, it will ALWAYS be a matter of life and death. There is no such thing as a hand to hand fighter who can avoid every attack and come out unscathed. Plan on getting hit. With the heavy arm to leg blocks of Thai Kickboxing that act as a kind of self made brick wall, along with devastating leg sweeps and knee breaks, this artform is perfect for the dangerous possibilities of collapse.
Western Boxing: It’s not an Eastern martial art, but Western boxing teaches incredible punching power. Eastern martial arts focus on speed in order to inflict damage, but the bottom line is that Western boxers hit harder because they assert more body weight behind their punches; I have seen it, I have felt it, and I have dealt it. Of course, it is more important to learn speed and timing before learning to hit hard. The most powerful punches in the world are useless if all they do is sweep the air. Western boxing is an incomplete fighting system, but a fantastic addition to the survival martial artist’s repertoire.
Jiu Jitsu: Jiu Jitsu is a grappling martial art from Japan, though you wouldn’t know it by the way the Brazilians have commercialized and franchised it. Jiu Jitsu is indeed the flavor of the decade for self defense, and though I feel it has been way overhyped, it is an incredibly effective style for ground situations. That said, let’s be clear; Jiu Jitsu is actually a very limited fighting style, especially when you’re not in a cage and you are confronted with more than one attacker. Survivalists should learn grappling techniques so that they know how to defend against takedowns and return to their feet. In a real combat situation, you NEVER try to go to the ground on purpose. Multiple opponents will decimate you within seconds while you are trying to put a choke hold on the guy in front of you. Add a knife into the picture, and purposely jumping into close quarters with the intent to “grapple” will be a death sentence. Successful fighters will always combine Jiu Jitsu with other artforms in order to round out their abilities.
Hapkido: Hapkido in my view is the perfect antithesis to Jiu Jitsu and any other grappling art for that matter. It should be at the top of every survivalist’s list of fighting methods. Hapkido focuses on joint locks, joint breaks, using centrifugal force, pressure points, eye gouges, throat attacks, etc. Generally, it is very difficult for someone to grapple with you if you break their fingers, wrists, hyperextend their knee caps, or crush their wind pipe. One twisted wrist could put a dedicated grappler or wrestler completely out of commission, which is why you never see these methods used in the UFC. The fights would be over quickly, and the sport’s flavor would be lost. Knowing how to counter grappling using grappling is fine, but knowing how to utterly disable a grappler is better. As a survivalist, it is important to learn both.
Eskrima / Kali: Filipino in origin, Eskrima and Kali revolve around stick and knife training, and some of the deadliest blade wielding martial artists on Earth are known to originate from these styles. The point of practicing the Filipino arts is not only to learn to attack with edged weapons, but also to defend against them. Knowing how armed assailants, trained and untrained, will move to harm you gives you a distinct edge. Understanding the motion of a knife strike allows the defender to create or close distance effectively, while timing arm and wrist locks to reduce cuts and control the knife hand before serious damage to your body is done.
Taekwondo: A Korean style, Taekwondo has received a bad rap over the past few years as an “ineffective” martial art, but usually this criticism comes from people who have never actually practiced it. Like Jiu Jitsu, it is a style limited to a very particular range of attacks and scenarios. Taekwondo focuses on kicks to the extreme. Sport Taekwondo is not a practical measure of the style’s use, and this is where its tainted reputation comes from. The truth is, Taekwondo has the fastest and in many cases the most devastating kicks in the world. The use of kicks depends on the mastery of the fighter. If he is fast, and precise, then his strikes will make his opponents feel like they’ve just been hit by an oversized utility van. If he is slow, and unfocused, he will be tackled to the ground like a rag doll and pummeled in an embarrassing manner. That said, one well placed kick can crush ribs, crack skulls, and knock an opponent into dreamland before he ever knew what hit him.
Jeet Kune Do: Created by the venerable Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do’s philosophy is to adopt what works, and set the rest aside. It is essentially a combination of the short range tactics of Wing Chun combined with the long range tactics of Japanese and Korean styles. Jeet Kune Do’s goal is to be a truly complete martial art, and so far, it has proven itself in this regard. If you can only practice one style of self defense, this should be it. Some people attribute the adaptation methodology in self defense to MMA, but really, it was Bruce Lee that pioneered the idea of studying multiple styles and modernizing martial arts. Because of his efforts, the offensive and defensive capabilities of Jeet Kune Do are astounding, and perfect for the survivalist delving into the world of hand-to-hand.
Ninjitsu: When I was a kid back in the 80’s, the ninja was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think the allure of it was its simple mythology; if you could learn martial arts, and get your hands on a black mask, you could be a superhero. No need for radioactive spiders or genetic mutation. You were a man – in a mask – with badass fists of fury, and that’s it. Of course, the portrayal of ninjitsu has become so cartoonish that people today scarcely believe it is an actual martial art. In fact, it is, and a very deadly one. The brilliance of ninjitsu really dwells in its “think outside the box” mentality. There is a sort of cleverness and unpredictability to it that makes it so dangerous. Ninja’s in feudal Japan were assassins, but they were also the guerilla fighters of their age. The combat methods of ninjitsu revolve around surprise, and misdirection, which are factors that always work in the survivalist’s favor.
There is no way around it. The Martial Arts make a survivalist better at his job, which is to thrive in the very worst possible conditions. It’s not just about fighting; it is also about developing a fighting spirit. Beyond the utility of self defense, as survivalists we must strengthen our inner world as much as our outer shells. It takes time, and patience, and a willingness to struggle. Any person who masters a martial art has not only shown a dedication to his own physical prowess, but he has also proven he has a mental toughness that will carry him through any catastrophe. That kind of toughness is a rare commodity in America today, and when found, should be greatly valued and encouraged, especially by the Liberty Movement.
You can contact Brandon Smith at: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Alt-Market is an organization designed to help you find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for mutual aid and defense. Join Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the system and build something better.
Author: Brandon Smith
Views:Read by 6,570 people
Date: October 18th, 2012
Website:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Black Blade: I occassionally spar with a few friends (San Soo) as well as the sword arts (Eishen Ryu), and I have friends and family who tend to prefer Krav Maga. It's good for keeping fit as well as for personal defense. Just wish I had more time though as work seems to always interfer with such things.
__________________ When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin
That is some good stuff to know..
Wish I was younger, hell if I ever lifted my leg like that guy I would need an ambooolance for myself, not the other guy..
You guys out there ever study "Beer Bottle?"
We have a great bar here, where they practice the ancient art every Friday night.
I sit by the exit and watch..
Takes some practice and they have to be quick..
Primary goal, I guess from what I have seen. Is to break the bottle over the other guys head first...
Almost always a sure win, no tap outs.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. "Man needs but two things to survive alone in the woods. A blow up female doll and his trusty old AK-47" - Thomas Jefferson 1781
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | <urn:uuid:bc3cd20a-edda-415f-a477-2dd485b04ecd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gunco.net/forums/f250/martial-arts-survivalist-69246/?= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96307 | 2,952 | 1.835938 | 2 |
by Robert Teitelman | Published January 30, 2012 at 12:38 PM
Gone but not forgotten. Occupy Wall Street has disappeared from Zuccotti Park, save for occasional gatherings of shivering souls watched over by yellow-jacketed police, but it lingers on the edge of consciousness, in the now embedded cliché "we are the 99%" and, apparently in Davos, where all things go to warm their hands on the gas-fed embers of 1% capitalism. Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach lays out in today's Financial Times a final session at Davos that allowed a branch of the local Occupy movement to do their thing. As Roach himself says, "Friday's Open Forum, in an effort to take the debate from the glitterati to the real people" featured the topic "remodeling capitalism" and was a "chance to open this debate to the seething masses." Note a few assumptions here. First, glitterati are not real people, which may well be true -- I wouldn't know. Second, the "so-called Occupy Community" represented "the seething masses." This, of course, is the argument made by the Occupy community, embodied in the 99% slogan. But based on their numbers, on polls and on anecdotal evidence, they are a small segment of the overall population at large. Lastly, why do masses always seethe?
Roach's description of this affair sounds like something out of the '60s. The affair begins in chaos, with Occupy "agitators" stationed throughout the room leading chants. The panel itself is an mélange of various points of view. Roach, as a Wall Street representative, is hissed. An hour-long discussion ensues. Roach comes to accept "a reasonable suggestion" on the need to balance growth and stability. And just before he escapes in the night, "Maria," an Occupy representative, offers her views: "The aim of Occupy is to think for yourself. We don't focus on solutions. We want to change the process of finding solutions."
That sentiment jives with what we know about the thrust of OWS at Zuccotti Park. It also sums up the challenges of the movement. Yes, it has achieved a certain amount of celebrity; and its sloganeering has been effective. But what has it become? OWS's notion of creating a political transformation -- "We want to change the process of finding solutions" -- is rooted in place, in physical proximity, like Athenian democracy. This is paradoxical, given its expert use of social media for drawing crowds, and self-limiting. Without a physical space, an encampment, where general assemblies can be held and the interminable process of achieving democratic consensus reached, this is just another protest movement, albeit one with a sense of humor and a talent for slick slogans. This explains, I think, OWS's continuing attempts to find a new home, first in the empty lot owned by Trinity Church, then this weekend, in the cozy confines of Washington Square Park, with New York University around it like a very expensive muffler. There's something bittersweet about this, with its efforts to replicate Zuccotti without turning the public against them. As The Wall Street Journal writes: "Organizers said they hoped demonstrations like Sunday would improve the movement's public image, a sentiment that comes just a day after protesters in Oakland clashed with police and more than 300 people were arrested."
Gordon Crovitz in the WSJ also took up the plight of OWS but from a more critical perspective. He argues that OWS violated property rights and as long as municipalities and the police enforce those rights, the movement will fade. He may be right; he may be wrong. (Crovitz blames "liberal city politicians" in New York for letting the movement take root. It's a sign of how conservative the Republican Party has become that the moderate Bloomberg administration could be called "liberal.") Crovitz argues that OWS was essentially an "AstroTurf" movement, started by AdBusters, and thus, in a sense, lacking authenticity, legitimacy, roots in anything real. Like Roach's "real people" we now get to tangle with what's real or not. Is the Tea Party, which also has AstroTurf roots, real? Well, its votes in the 2010 elections were certainly real; and Sarah Palin sold a ton of books to someone real. And one could say that OWS, whether its genesis was AstroTurf or not, has had "real" consequence. President Obama is taking a decidedly more aggressive populist stand than before OWS. And even the Republican primary battle between Romney and Gingrich features issues like inequality, private equity and Wall Street articulated by OWS -- or by interpreters of OWS in the punditocracy. In fact, it doesn't matter. Nearly every political movement that makes an impact began with an organizer. The notion of a true grassroots movement is mostly a myth (historically, many of them sprang from the political parties). That said AstroTurf movements couldn't sustain themselves unless troops from the grass roots sign up for duty. The Tea Party achieved that; for a few months, the Occupy movements did as well. The real question, which returns us to the importance of "place," is whether it will be self-sustaining come the spring.
That's an open question. The emphasis on fundamental political transformation is stirring but, again, decidedly self-limiting. The decision to press specific issues smacks of politics as usual. Who wants to wrestle with the kind of hard economic issues Roach laid out in his Davos remarks: inequality, global income disparities and growth? Besides, the greatest threat to OWS is that it becomes familiar and boring: toward the end of the Zuccotti phase, that, plus a certain loss of patience in a group that was increasingly viewed as parasitic, began to limit the tolerance of the surrounding community toward the affair. The real challenge for the OWS core group is to devise a fresh and inspiring new shtick -- a new Zuccotti or effective slogans that paper over the underlying incoherence of the movement -- knowing full well that to resort to public spaces is now probably off the table. To get anything done, to get any attention (to "occupy" the media), OWS needs to mobilize large numbers, and that will depend in part upon the economic situation with its large numbers of unemployed and indebted young folks. How they'll pull that off will be fascinating to watch. One thing to keep in mind: The one solution to the fear of becoming boring and irrelevant is to become more aggressive, to confront the authorities more brazenly. That, however, has nothing to do with democratic transformation and consensus and will lose the still-accepting nature of the larger community. Meanwhile, media and public attention will be increasingly focused on a presidential election. | <urn:uuid:83bfc72c-bd29-4c0f-a453-0acf69a76a6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedeal.com/thedealeconomy/whatever-happened-to-occupy-wall-street.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964814 | 1,416 | 1.71875 | 2 |
A Million Reasons to Celebrate
For the fourth consecutive year, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s Challenge for Life 20K Walk has netted over a million dollars for cancer care and research.
The 2012 Challenge for Life took place on June 9th. At that time, the event’s walkers and sponsors had raised over $955,000, but their efforts didn’t stop on the day of the walk. During the next few weeks, donations continued to arrive at the Challenge office.
“This achievement is due to the incredible support of our walkers, fundraisers, sponsors, donors, our Board, and our staff. The Challenge for Life is truly a team effort,” says Annitta Stenning, Executive Director of CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. “We can’t thank our community enough for the way they have embraced this event and made it their own. Everyone can feel good about the fact that every cent of this money is staying in Manitoba to help Manitobans with cancer.”
The five-year net total of the Challenge for Life is currently $4.7 million. These funds were immediately put to work funding patient services, support, and cancer research throughout the province.
To participate in the Challenge, walkers must pledge to raise a minimum of $1000 and to take positive steps to reduce their own risk of cancer, such as exercising, eating healthy, practicing safe sun, quitting smoking, and getting regular medical check-ups.
The sixth annual Challenge for Life 20K Walk will be held on Saturday, June 8th, 2013, at Assiniboine Park. | <urn:uuid:fb2c9676-cc3b-4e55-960d-53b9b949c7a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancercarefdn.mb.ca/netcommunity/page.aspx?pid=1005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96722 | 334 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Success Driver 1: Creating the Right Orchestration Organization
Companies which embark on ambitious innovation initiatives often find that demands for short-term results lead to downstream complications including the loss of centralized decision making; misalignment of necessary skills; and conflicting agendas. Establishing the right orchestration organization and management structure upfront becomes even more critical in environments where the development process requires coordination across multiple external entities and organizational boundaries.
Convergent platform innovation is similar to small-cap, early-stage start-up efforts, often ill-suited to the management and cultural style of larger and more hierarchical organizations.
Large cap leaders in industries characterized by complex outsourcing—like consumer electronics and aerospace—adopt an “incubator” structure as a proven organizational strategy. An incubator organization structure can foster and enable the right mix of rapid decision making; championing of an entrepreneurial mentality; and the development of a risk taking culture required for success. As shown in Figure 3, establishing stand-alone objectives and mandates, backed by strong executive leadership, is key to making an incubator model work. Autonomous decision-making is needed across departments from identifying customer requirements; to feature definition and design; to supply chain and manufacturing partnership management. Incubators also require dedicated resources and budgets to leverage personnel and expertise from multiple functional units with shared metrics and incentives.
An incubator approach opens the door to organizational and governance alignment for rapid experimentation, appropriate risk taking and outside the box thinking.
For example, a consumer healthcare client seeks growth through diversifying into home-use health and beauty devices. But the company ends up squashing its R&D team’s most innovative ideas at the concept stage and missed development timelines for those ideas that made it to prototyping. As a result, poor organizational alignment created a failure cycle.
Without senior executive commitment, even the most promising ideas failed to receive adequate funding or hit internal rate of return targets. The few prototypes managing to make it to production—such as a promising light-based home-use wrinkle remover—were delivered by managers lacking shared incentives and trapped in traditional metrics. R&D engineers were focused on safety and functional features without involving contract developers early on to ensure cost-effective production. That led contract developers—focused on speed-to-market instead of balanced performance—to deliver a differentiated, but far too costly, product that failed to meet conservative payback goals versus risk profiles and quite naturally, died off.
Leading orchestrators complement the right organizational structure by ensuring they install the right management team to mitigate risks and delays. The majority of project delays and risks to distributed innovation initiatives occur at coordination “boundaries” where critical decisions are made and critical activities handed off from one group to another. These boundaries come in two forms: decision-making boundaries where sub-optimal trade-offs are made between competing options; and activity-coordination “boundaries” when work is passed from one firm in the value chain to another. Establishing an effective management team with necessary boundary-spanning competencies significantly improves decision making and goes a long way toward ensuring success.
Effective orchestration managers are often generalists with diverse functional expertise as well as relevant technical experience of the underlying key platform technologies. In addition to establishing the right organizational structure and installing the right team, best-in-class orchestrators broker and maintain effective partnerships across the innovation lifecycle and along the value chain. | <urn:uuid:9ec6655d-f3a6-49ff-9bde-6cc32d75439c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sdcexec.com/article/10842634/orchestrating-effective-platform-innovation-in-cpg-and-retail?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932825 | 702 | 1.757813 | 2 |
OAKLAND -- Maurice Lim Miller, a Bay Area native and longtime advocate for the poor, was one of 23 people awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" on Monday.
The $500,000 award is given annually to people in the sciences, arts, humanities and other disciplines in order to allow them to pursue long-term projects of their choosing. Recipients may spend the money -- $100,000 per year for five years -- as they see fit.
Among this year's other winners were mandolin player and composer Chris Thile; Northwestern University historian Dylan C. Penningroth, whose work focuses on the pre-Civil War South; and the Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao."
Miller's work focuses on empowering the poor to make better choices about their own lives using an innovative system involving friends and family members. Participants get together once a month to track each other's progress across a very basic set of metrics, such as securing and maintaining employment, improving their children's grades and saving money. Successes are rewarded with small cash payments, and members make their own decisions without the interference of case workers or counselors. To the extent that outsiders participate, it is only to ask pointed questions and encourage independent thought.
The program, called Family Independence Initiative, got its start with 25 families in Oakland in 2001 and in
Miller said his approach is neither liberal nor conservative, and has adopted tenets from both political persuasions to make his case.
"Our work falls between the arguments that are being had between the right and the left," Miller told the Associated Press. "The argument that people don't take personal responsibility is wrong. But the argument that they should take personal responsibility is right."
In a blog item written for the Huffington Post in May, Miller extolled his Mexican mother's outstanding work ethic, saying welfare systems that stripped people of their dignity and turned them into victims were especially toxic for the nation's poor.
"My mother taught me that do-gooders can do as much harm as name-callers to the pride and sense of self-efficacy of low-income people," wrote Miller in the post, entitled, "When Helping Doesn't Help."
Like the other award recipients, Miller received a phone call Monday alerting him to the prize. | <urn:uuid:f4e00771-4246-42a9-9025-284cb123fc3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.contracostatimes.com/my-town/ci_21675832/oaklands-maurice-lim-miller-awarded-macarthur-foundation-genius?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977671 | 486 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Pfeiffer students analyze complex issues as part of 2013 NCICU Ethics Bowl in Raleigh, N.C.
On Feb. 8-9, Pfeiffer University students Diamond Pate, Kayleigh Peterman, Rachel Harden and Stacy Guinto-Salinas traveled to Campbell University School of Law in Raleigh, N.C., to participate in the 2013 North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) Ethics Bowl.
First held in Feb. 2012, the Ethics Bowl is an annual event created to increase student awareness in regard to ethics in everyday life and emphasize the importance of applying ethical standards to all situations.
The Pfeiffer team, composed of religion and psychology majors, had a total of one win and three losses and competed against Meredith College, Wake Forest University, Johnson C. Smith University and Saint Augustine’s University. Also competing were Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University, High Point University, Livingstone College, Mars Hill College, Methodist University, Montreat College, Mount Olive College, , St. Andrews University, Salem College, Shaw University and Wingate University.
“We all deal with ethical dilemmas every day,” said Dr. Kevin Taylor, visiting assistant professor of religion and practical theology and ethics bowl advisor. “Having experience in analyzing ethical situations will prepare students for these issues as they face them in the future.”
“As a participant, the most important thing I learned was that positive teamwork is key in this competition,” said senior religion major Diamond Pate. “We had a fantastic team and people from other universities commented on how well we collaborated.”
The presenting sponsors of this event were BB&T, Duke Energy, UPS, and Wells Fargo. Other sponsors included AT&T, Burlington Industries /International Textile Group, Inc., Dominion NC Power, First Citizens Bank, Fidelity Investments, Martin Marietta Materials, Ads Infinitum, BCWH Architects, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Theo Davis Printing. | <urn:uuid:ca98c6a7-801a-4546-a90e-82c00d34c985> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfeiffer.edu/parents/news/4335-pfeiffer-students-analyze-complex-issues-as-part-of-2013-ncicu-ethics-bowl-in-raleigh-n-c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932854 | 420 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Hoard's Dairyman: It isn't business as usual
“It isn’t business as usual”,
July 2010 Issue, page 469
David Kohl is professor emeritus of agricultural finance and small business management at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va. As owner of AgriVisions, he continues to advise businesses.
Gary Sipiorski is the dairy development manager for VitaPlus of Madison, Wis. He is a member of the board of directors with Citizens State Bank of Loyal, Wis.
What is the correct liquidity ratio?
Kohl: I recommend using the working capital-to-revenue ratio. The old current ratio is becoming antiquated as operations become larger and more complex. Let’s look at it with a stop-and-go-light analogy.
Green light: Greater than 33 percent — If the producer has high debt levels, is moving into a major expansion, or is coming off a profitable cycle in the industry along with a good risk management program for young producers.
Yellow light: 10 to 33 percent — If higher equity above 70 percent or coming off a down cycle in prices, such as recently.
Red light: Less than 10 percent — Either extremely high equity more than 85 percent, a great risk management program, or frugal living.
Working capital can take a number of years to build up only to be used up in 6 to 10 months like during the last down cycle. With higher volatility in milk prices and input costs, this metric will become more important.
Sipiorski: A dairy operation should have $2 of current assets for every $1 of current liability. That would be called a 2:1 ratio. This means there should be two times the amount of current assets of cash, feed, and other current assets which will be turned into cash in the next 12 months compared to the current liabilities of bills owned and principal due in the next 12 months. A 1.5:1 ratio is about as skinny as dairy should go. This may seem like a lot of liquidity. But this is a safe level; think about how this kind of liquidity would have felt in 2009.
Where does return on operating expense need to be on a good operation?
Kohl: I also like the operating expense to revenue ratio (excluding interest and depreciation or corporate management fees). As for benchmarks:
• Green Light: less than 70 percent
• Yellow Light: 70 to 85 percent
• Red Light: more than 85 percent
Thus, top level producers will have 30 percent margin. However, examine this over the years and through the cycles.
Sipiorski: On most dairies, an 85 percent expense rate is as good as it is going to get with the current market conditions. If it is possible for a dairy to lower their expenses below 85 percent, they will be a winner over others. Today’s economics does not seem to be allowing dairy producers to capture any more than a 15 percent return. | <urn:uuid:c7e3e379-8ace-44d1-9b3e-297392c56b4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hoards.com/DE/bus?mini=calendar%2F2013-01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952908 | 616 | 1.5 | 2 |
TransCanada’s (NYSE:TRP) proposed Keystone XL pipeline set off a fervor among both environmentalists and lobbyists alike. Originally planned to carry syncrude and diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands down towards refineries on the Gulf Coast, the project become mired in a deep political battle. It later was rejected by the Obama administration after Congress imposed a 60-day deadline on the approval process.
Overall, President Barack Obama’s reasoning for canceling the project was that the deadline for the decision had “prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact.” Ultimately, TransCanada plans on splitting up the pipeline into three parts and has begun construction on the third leg that will carry oil from storage facilities in Cushing, Okla., to the refineries on the Gulf Coast.
While splitting the Keystone into parts certainly alleviates much of TransCanada’s headaches, another potential political football game in the energy sector is brewing. Given the abundance of natural gas within our borders, this pending battle could change the energy landscape within the United States for the next 15 years.
A Problem With Exports
New drilling technologies have allowed energy firms within the United States to unlock a virtual ocean of natural gas from once-impenetrable shale rock. However, as companies have rushed to tap those resources, they have created some unintended consequences: a glut of natural gas. Prices for the fuel have continued to fall during the past few years and in January touched a decade-low of $2.231 per million BTUs. This has prompted many E&P firms, like Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK), to curtail production.
Given the oversupply of natural gas in the United States and the lack of domestic demand, a variety of producers want to begin shipping the fuel overseas, where prices are higher. To do so, natural gas is cooled under pressure and converted into a liquid for transport by tanker ships to markets not connected by pipelines. The fuel then is converted back to a gas at specialized import terminals. Demand for liquid natural gas continues to grow, especially in Asia, where domestic fuel supplies are not enough to satiate power requirements.
This is where Cheniere Energy’s (AMEX:LNG) proposed $10 billion liquefaction facility comes into play. Through its Cheniere Energy Partners (AMEX:CQP) subsidiary and a healthy $2 billion investment from Blackstone (NYSE:BX), the company plans on adding export capacity to its Sabine Pass importing terminal. Receiving one of the first FERC permits to begin exporting LNG to non-free-trade agreement nations, Cheniere is at the epicenter of transforming the United States into a net energy exporter for the first time in decades.
However, this plan to begin exporting our bounty is where the trouble is brewing. Like the Keystone, the Sabine Pass natural gas plant is being targeted by variety of environmental groups because the project is potentially hazardous to the environment. The facility itself is not so much an issue, but the way natural gas is extracted.
The Sierra Club is arguing that opening America’s natural gas reserves to exports ultimately would lead to increased hydraulic fracturing. At its core, fracking involves injecting vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals called “propellants” into the hard rock at high pressure. This cocktail is then used to “crack” the rock and free the gas. While the EPA has deemed fracking safe, environmentalists have maintained their position that it contaminates underground drinking water.
Cheniere’s facility already has been granted approval, but environmentalists were successful in a last-minute rally to block the Keystone pipeline additions. The real kicker is that the FERC will examine these environmental claims before it issues permits for the remaining seven export facility proposals from firms like utility Southern Co. (NYSE: SO). | <urn:uuid:ab3912ce-9636-4c39-8bdd-8d8bbb11dfd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://investorplace.com/investorpolitics/political-battlefield-shifts-to-sabine-pass/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949705 | 797 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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